During India's Independence Day this weekend, thousands of men will protest a judicial system they say too often presumes them guilty when it comes to dowry and domestic violence. Read our in-depth report …
As India kicks off its Independence Day celebrations this weekend, thousands of husbands claiming harassment and men's rights activists will converge upon Shimla to protest what they say is a skewed justice system and laws that presume them guilty until proven innocent when it comes to crimes involving women.
Men are protesting gender-biased laws, the Domestic Violence Act and the misuse of dowry laws. However, women's rights advocates say the perceived injustices that men in India face are nothing compared to the discrimination, oppression and violence women in India endure on a daily basis.
"Gender-based discrimination and violence is so entrenched in Indian society — about two-thirds of married women in India are victims of domestic violence," Aruna Kashyap, researcher for the women's rights division for Human Rights Watch, told wowOwow.com. "Dowry deaths are on the rise.
But as Kashyap explains it, laws against domestic violence and dowry help give many women "the hope of a life with some dignity or justice."
The Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF) is one of about 14 groups taking part in a national conference this weekend to push for men's rights. They will meet Indian leaders to determine how to expose police brutality, human rights violations and corruption in the judiciary. Both men and women are victims, according to SIFF, but a big problem is blatant misuse of domestic violence and dowry laws to unjustly punish men.
In India, the payment of a dowry was prohibited in 1961 but is still rampant. More rules, such as 498a of the Indian Penal Code, were later enacted to make it easier for the wife to seek redress from potential harassment by the husband's family. A "dowry death" is the death of a woman caused by unusual burns or bodily injury within seven years of marriage. Tragically, many women are victim to "bride burning," or being set on fire because of insufficient dowries. The guilty are required to be punished with no fewer than seven years in prison. In 2001, Indian husbands and in-laws allegedly killed nearly 7,000 women over "inadequate dowry payments," according to Indian government statistics reported in the BBC. Indian government figures from the National Crime Records Bureau also show that in 2007, there were 8,093 cases of reported dowry deaths, with a 33 percent conviction rate. There were almost 76,000 cases of reported cruelty toward women by husbands and relatives, with a nearly 21 percent conviction rate. Dowries have become such a horrible ordeal that female feoticide (women aborting their female fetuses) is a well-known, genocide-level problem in India.
But some say dowry laws are misused by women and their families. One site, 498a.org, has been set up to expose "the rampant misuse of 498a (Dowry Law misuse) by unscrupulous women to extort money and harass their husband's entire extended family." It also says a 2005 domestic violence law "grossly violates the liberty and dignity of an average man and his family members. The law appears to be a blessing for people in abusive or violent relationships. However, a careful analysis reveals that, under the ploy of 'women and children welfare,' this law is yet another misguided attempt to enact legislation to grant women legal supremacy over men and to create a society where men are deprived of their rights."
SIFF President Anil Kumar told wOw that many accused men, women and children are often abused, threatened, extorted and jailed without trial. His group points out that male suicides are higher than that of females within marriage, and wants laws to consider the accused "innocent until proven guilty." SIFF also wants laws to say people can only be jailed after an investigation provides sufficient evidence of guilt. Kumar said the Domestic Violence Act should be gender neutral and that law abusers should be severely punished. He says because of strong support from "radical feminist organizations" funded by American and United Nations entities for such laws, many Indian politicians are loathe to wade into such issues.
"Indian politicians are afraid of backlash from these organizations, if they change these laws," he explains. "They feel, if there is agitation by the well-funded feminists, then they will lose votes in elections. So, the officials and politicians are stuck in the middle and are in turn paying a heavy price."
'Women Are Still Suffering'
But Kashyap says the Indian government has to do more — not less — to support structures for women who want to launch violence or harassment complaints, and make the criminal justice system, particularly the police, more gender sensitive.
"For every man or his family that sees a prison, thousands go scot-free in India because women experiencing violence face multiple layers of disempowerment and barriers to seeking justice," Kashyap explains, and goes on to say that many women who complain are thrown out of their matrimonial homes. "And we are not even getting into the physical and mental anguish of women who are left with scars for life."
Indian feminist writer Sarojini Sahoo tells wOw that one cannot forget that female foeticide, bride burning and chastity belt use are still rampant in India. In fact, recent research published in The Lancet journal shows that in 2001, fire-related deaths accounted for two percent of all deaths in India — six times that reported by police. About 106,000 of them were women, mostly between the ages of 15 and 34. UNICEF says that since 1991 and with the proliferation of mobile sex selection clinics that perform selective abortions, 80 percent of districts in India have recorded a declining sex ratio with the state of Punjab being the worst, given the rise of female foeticide.
"Some husbands may be harassed (I would like to say 'annoyed' instead of 'harassed'), because they want more from their wives," Sahoo says, noting that many men in today's Indian culture still expect women to manage their household, motherhood and "the duty of a submissive wife extra to their outside burden" of working outside the home.
"There may be some cases of 'male harassment,' but what are the actual figures?" Sahoo asks. "Women are still suffering. Women rights are still neither adequately understood nor granted. The personal or family-bound or parliamentary women's rights are still … farce."
Meanwhile, SIFF and its allies hope to get 40,000 people to attend this weekend's protest.
The current judicial system "is against cardinal principles of natural justice that everyone is innocent until proven guilty," Kumar said. "Hence, these laws are fascist in nature and these are not consistent with democratic processes."
No comments:
Post a Comment