What is infanticide?
Broadly defined, infanticide means killing young of one's own species. It is sometimes followed by cannibalism, which means eating all or part of an individual of the same species (e.g. Zarrow et al. 1972). Infanticide has been found in many species, including humans, primates, felines, canids, cetaceans, rodents, insects and fish, and has generated a large body of literature (for reviews, see Ebensperger 1998, Hausfater and Hrdy 1984, Labov et al. 1985, van Schaik and Janson 2000).
There was a mother monkey and its child trapped in a barrel of height such that the mother monkey is unable to jump out; the mother and child clinging to each other.
However the situation is turning to worse as rain started pouring in and the barrel began to fill up with water. As the water is rising the mother brought its child up on her shoulder. The water level now rises above the mouth level and the mother in a bid to bail out its child kept on its head. When the water level rose above the nose level, the mother could no longer sustain its breath and drops the child in the water and stands on top of it in a bid to save her own life.
Moral: For every living being, the most precious thing is its own life. And for this purpose parents can even sacrifice their off-springs. Nothing can be farther than truth.
I have begun to feel the same now. The child for whom the parents were once upon a time ready to sacrifice themselves so that their children gets best of education, best of clothing, best of all things are now ready to sacrifice for their own well-being.
तळहातावरच्या फोडासारखे ज्या मुलाला आपण लहानपणापासून जपले त्याची काहीच काळजी न करता आपण ह्या परिस्थितीच्या बाहेर कसे सुखरूप पडू फक्त याचा विचार करण्यात आलेला आहे.
This syndrome is called as “Predatory Cannibalism”. Sacrificing our own child- The biggest shame is that this is happening within the family. Such things are common in some of the animals but now this has also begun in human beings. It’s being proved beyond doubt that we are living in the “Kaliyug”.
This reminds me of the song of Gopi (1970)
रामचन्द्र कह गये सियासे ऐसा कलयुग आयेगा,
हंस चुगेगा दाना दुनका, कौआ मोती खायेगा.
Our Honourable octogenarian’s have not acted when the unconstitutional IPC498A act was framed. Now when they are feeling the heat of this act they seek provisions for themselves for seeking bail. This by itself clarifies that they have accepted and recognized that cruelty was inflicted upon their daughter-in-law primarily by their son. This essentially boils down to their own ineptness in raising their child of appropriate standards.
What is 498a?
Section 498A was inserted into the penal code in 1983 it reads:
“Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.”
In practice, cruelty is taken to include the demanding of a dowry. This section is non-bailable, non-compoundable (i.e. it cannot be privately resolved between the parties concerned) and cognizable (i.e. the police can arrest the accused without investigation or warrants) on a report from a woman or close relative.
Police often file charges against the husband, his parents and other relatives (whoever being named on the complaint by the wife or her close relatives) and put them in jail. There is no penalty (even a fine) for filing a false case. Many individuals have claimed this is being abused by the wife or her close relatives.
The Malimath committee in 2003 proposed making amendments to this section although such amendments have been opposed by women’s groups. The Centre for Social Research India has released a research report[3] opposing amendments to section 498A. According to this report, in the studied cases there were no convictions based solely on section 498A. Although the report states that 60.5 percent of the studied cases were falsified. They also state that many people believe the law has been abused by “educated and independent minded women.”
On 20 July 2005, Justices Arijit Pasayat and H.K. Seema of the Indian Supreme Court declared Section 498A to be constitutional.”The object is to strike at the root of dowry menace. But by misuse of the provision a new legal terrorism can be unleashed. The provision is intended to be used as a shield and not an assassin’s weapon. If [the] cry of “wolf” is made too often as a prank, assistance and protection may not be available when the actual wolf appears,” the Bench said.
Section 498A in itself is, however, not meant to deal specifically with dowry — it is commonly considered to be a ‘dowry law’ because domestic violence against a wife related to dowry demands is considered to be within the scope of ‘cruelty’ envisaged by the Section.
All the cases of IPC498A are false.
Till date there is negligible rate of conviction based on IPC498A alone.
Beneficiaries of IPC498A, Divorce laws, DV Act and other gender-biased laws
Police, Lawyers, Judiciary, unscrupulous wives, corporates, vote-bank politicians.
Now let us see what is “Conflict of interest”.
conflict of interest n. a situation in which a person has a duty to more than one person or organization, but cannot do justice to the actual or potentially adverse interests of both parties. This includes when an individual's personal interests or concerns are inconsistent with the best for a customer, or when a public official's personal interests are contrary to his/her loyalty to public business. An attorney, an accountant, a business adviser or realtor cannot represent two parties in a dispute and must avoid even the appearance of conflict. He/she may not join with a client in business without making full disclosure of his/her potential conflicts, he/she must avoid commingling funds with the client, and never, never take a position adverse to the customer.
Ways to mitigate conflicts of interests (source-wikipedia)
Removal
The best way to handle conflicts of interests is to avoid them entirely. For eg. People have self interest, there should be no temptation to act to their advantage.
Disclosure
Commonly, politicians and high-ranking government officials are required to disclose financial information - assets such as stock, debts such as loans, and/or corporate positions held, typically annually. To protect privacy (to some extent), financial figures are often disclosed in ranges .
Certain professionals are required either by rules related to their professional organization, or by statute, to disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest. In some instances, the failure to provide full disclosure is a crime.
Recusal
Those with a conflict of interest are expected to recuse themselves from (i.e., abstain from) decisions where such a conflict exists. The imperative for recusal varies depending upon the circumstance and profession, either as common sense ethics, codified ethics, or by statute. For example, if the governing board of a government agency is considering hiring a consulting firm for some task, and one firm being considered has, as a partner, a close relative of one of the board's members, then that board member should not vote on which firm is to be selected. In fact, to minimize any conflict, the board member should not participate in any way in the decision, including discussions.
Judges are supposed to recuse themselves from cases when personal conflicts of interest may arise. For example, if a judge has participated in a case previously in some other judicial role he/she is not allowed to try that case. Recusal is also expected when one of the lawyers in a case might be a close personal friend, or when the outcome of the case might affect the judge directly, such as whether a car maker is obliged to recall a model that a judge drives..
Third-party evaluations
Consider a situation where the owner of a majority of a publicly held corporation decides to buy out the minority shareholders and take the corporation private. What is a fair price? Obviously it is improper (and, typically, illegal) for the majority owner to simply state a price and then have the (majority-controlled) board of directors approve that price. What is typically done is to hire an independent firm (a third party), well-qualified to evaluate such matters, to calculate a "fair price", which is then voted on by the minority shareholders.
Codes of ethics
Generally, codes of ethics forbid conflicts of interests. Often, however, the specifics can be controversial. Should therapists, such as psychiatrists, be allowed to have extra-professional relations with patients, or ex-patients? Should a faculty member be allowed to have an extra-professional relationship with a student, and should that depend on whether the student is in a class of, or being advised by, the faculty member?
Codes of ethics help to minimize problems with conflicts of interests because they can spell out the extent to which such conflicts should be avoided, and what the parties should do where such conflicts are permitted by a code of ethics (disclosure, recusal, etc.). Thus, professionals cannot claim that they were unaware that their improper behavior was unethical. As importantly, the threat of disciplinary action (for example, a lawyer being disbarred) helps to minimize unacceptable conflicts or improper acts when a conflict is unavoidable.
How are the beneficiaries of this law?
1. Police
a) The National Police Commission in its Third Report referring to the quality of arrests by the police in India mentioned power of arrest as one of the chief sources of corruption in the police. The report suggested that, by and large, nearly 60% of the arrests were either unnecessary or unjustified and that such unjustified police action accounted for 43.2% of the expenditure of the jails.
b) For every accused in 498A, make a wild guess of amount that is demanded by Police either to arrest, not to arrest or delay the arrest.
c) If every case is correctly investigated by Police 95% of the cases will not make it to court.
2. Lawyers-
a) घोडा अगर घास से दोस्ती करेगा तो खायेगा क्या?
b) Lets take nation-wide statistics of cases related to dowry and DV act
c) Now lets us consider the amount demanded and earned by lawyer for moving bail applications.
d) They often misguide the wives/husbands and make high promises of winning the case.
e) Who assisted in framing the DV act? – The lawyers collective.
Learning a lesson
A prominent lawyer's son dreamed of following in his father's footsteps. After graduating from college and law school with honors, he returned home to join his father's firm, intent on proving himself to be a skilled and worthy attorney. At the end of his first day at work he rushed into his father's office, and said, "Father, father! The Waghmare case, that you always said would go on forever -- the one you have been toiling on for ten years -- in one single day, I settled that case and saved the client a fortune!"His father frowned, and scolded his son, "I did not say that it would go on forever, son. I said that it could go on forever. When you saw me toiling on that case for days and weeks at a time, didn't it ever occur to you that I was billing by the hour?"
3. Judiciary – Anyone who has been to a court for any matter will not disagree that not a single person in the court works without a bribe.
4. Militant unscrupulous wives- In the barb of various maintenance laws and more particularly the abuse of DV act. Lawyers by default advise on interim maintenance and protection orders with right to residence. The DV act has power to evict even the lawful male owner of a dwelling unit.
5. Corporates- Corporates promote family disharmony by breaking the family. As they know that 2 households will breed consumerism. This in turn fuels the corporate honchos by funding the feminazis and the ever-money-hungry politicians. The feminazi NCW and WCD in turn create more such biased laws to grip in more and more people. Just read the DV act. Not a single Indian husband could be spared if a plain reading is done. That means there is Domestic Violence in each and every house.
6. Politicians- As said politicians have their vested interest. Organisations like UNIFEM, UNAID pump in millions of dollars into countries like India to export the tainted gender-biased laws. In Western culture, the child does not even know who its biological father is. And they want the same system to be adopted in India. The bigger chunk of such aids naturally finf=d their way to swiss accounts of this politicians.
To sum up this is all a vicious circle.
What needs to be done?
Understand who the well-wishers are and who are predators.
Unless all responsible citizens rise up against the tyranny of anti-family laws and the system that implements them, there is no hope of survival for the Indian Family.
Demand suo-moto heavy punishment for misusers of IPC498A and DV act. Demand even the Police and lawyers should be penalized.
A narrow approach like securing bail for Senior Citizens will not solve the problem. Do you want that your child should be the only sufferer? Or do you want to observe the menace holistically and then ponder and come to bring about a solution?
What present situation is?
How many of you are aware of CrPC amendments 2010? Section 41A of CrPC Amendment 2010 has clear-cut provisions for arrests. Now no police officer can arrest for offences in which the punishment is less than 7 years. It is now mandatory to issue summons notice to the accused and for IO to record the reasons of arrest or no-arrests. When such hefty provisions are already there you are still stuck-up on securing just bails for Senior citizens. RTI responses have shown that none of the Police officers since amendment has followed the CrPC procedure. Have anyone of you asked the Commissioner of Police, Pune to implement this amendment strictly? Its still not too late. Wake-up and demand whats just. Kerala Police have already issued strict guidelines to be followed as per CrPC amendment 2010. Why this can’t be done in Maharashtra?
RajyaSabha has on several occasions in recent past invited suggestions for amendment of IPC498A. How many of you have provided your inputs to the secretariat?
25 reasons “Why IPC 498A is Anti-Social?”
1 It is handled under the Criminal law for marriage related matters and not under Civil Laws.
2 Non-bailable warrant does not require proof before arrest. No investigation necessary. This exposes the vulnerability of the accused taking away their basic human rights.
3 Even those who were not part of the 'day-to-day' family life could be named and arrested on one complaint, which can also include pregnant women and children.
4 Accused is presumed guilty until proven innocent. Nowhere in the world it is so.
5 Gifts are conveniently interpreted as dowry as per whims of wife. Who decides that the gift exchanged were 'gifts or dowry'?
6 It is non-compoundable which means that the complaint can’t be taken back that hinders any scope of reconciliation between the couple.
7 After a man is accused of 498A, he will not take his wife back later.
8 Old parents who lived with dignity and respect have to live with the stigma of harassing their daughter-in-law for the rest of their lives.
9 Groom’s relatives don’t find a suitable bride after they are accused under 498A
10 Most of the cases are filed because the husband refuses to throw his parents out of the house at the wife’s demands.
11 Husband’s job is at risk when he is accused under 498A who could even be the only breadwinner of the family.
12 The health of the old parents dangerously deteriorates after they are arrested in a 498A case.
13 Some even commit suicide for not able to withstand the depression and frustration of been falsely accused.
14 Old parents after 498a case become very apprehensive and advice their son not to marry again.
15 The family ends up paying a very high price to settle the case, the money that was saved for the parent’s health.
16 Most often the lawyers tend to take the family for a ride to extract as much money as possible.
17 The possibility of a woman over-reacting on a trivial matter in the family is never considered as a reason of complaint.
18 A woman tries to get divorce proceedings faster by filing a 498a case even if no dowry was demanded.
19 The witnesses (neighbors) tend to support the woman for not getting into a police case. They even fear of been accused by the woman if they don’t support the woman.
20 Some women marries an NRI and slaps a 498A case only to extort large sum of money
21 Even after knowing that the complaint can be false, police tend to support the woman and asks the man to settle the case with a financial compensation.
22 The case can easily linger in the court for years and only the groom’s family has to pay the price.
23 498A case can be filed even after the divorce, which only means that the accuser wants to demand money legally apart from maintenance.
24 There is no prohibition clause in the 498A law that would stop women to misuse it.
25 It is nearly impossible to file a case of defamation on the accuser because the police will not register the case and it would be hard to prove it.
Kailash Khairnar
(The author is Men’s Rights activist and proud member of Save Indian Family Foundation. Takes pleasure in educating the public about the misuse of gender-biased laws, its effect on Men’s lives and his family)
http://saveindianfamily.org/
http://www.498a.org/
This blog is in response to Minutes of Meeting – Protection of Senior Citizens (Janaseva Foundation, Pune) from Domestic Harassment Act / 498A Act, Date 06/05/2011 at 4 p.m. at Hon’ble Adv S.K. Jain’s Office by Senior Citizens.
