May 28, 2009

Forget recession. Dowry stalks IT

56% of men who get booked for dowry harassment are techies, says forum for
harried husbands

Injustice bytes IT's Adams. Since the Domestic Violence Act 2005 came to the
help of harried wives, more and more techie hubbies are getting drawn into
cases involving their spouses.
Some 56 per cent of men, who get booked under the dowry prohibition Act or
the domestic violence Act, happen to be those working in IT-BPO and
Business, says Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), a pan-Indian forum for
harried husbands. All of them happen to be in the age group 24-28 years.
SIFF chairman Pandurang Katti says the findings came out in a sample survey
they conducted of 1,200 aggrieved husbands last year.
The foundation has shot off memoranda to the President, the Chief Justice of
India, the Law Commission and Sonia Gandhi to correct the "lop-sided law
that destabilises thousands of families in the country."
Why techies and businessmen? "Blundly put," says Katti, "it's because the
techies and biz people have more money." It is not limited to the
techno-city alone. There has been a 20 per cent annual increase in
dowry-related cases all over the country in the past four years. National
Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data says 50,703 husbands were booked for
dowry-related charges in 2003; the number went up to 75,930 in 2007.
"The domestic violence Act is skewed justice," fumes MG Kumar, of India
International Law Firm. "I handle scores of cases involving well-placed
husbands getting spiked for no fault of theirs."
A senior advocate, who did not wish to be named, says he defended a techie
who had married a girl, supposedly an orphan, but this wasn't the case. The
girl's relative sweet-talked her into filing a case under dowry harassment
just to get a quick buck from her husband, the advocate points out.

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/dnabangalore/newsview.aspx?eddate=5/28/2009&pageno=1&edition=9&prntid=5345&bxid=27960808&pgno=1

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