Faced with rising opposition to laws protecting women, women’s organisations are gearing up to launch an awareness campaign on growing violence against women and young girls in the state and the need for such laws.

“We will expose the concerted efforts of individuals and organisations to water down laws that have been made for the protection of women such as Domestic Violence Act and 498-A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty),” All India Democratic Women’s Association state treasurer B. Jhansi Rani said.

She said on Human Rights Day (December 10) her organisation would present memoranda to chief justices of high courts across the country regarding the denial of justice to women victims.

According to state crime record bureau data, 163 dowry-related deaths have been reported in TN till October. While 1,198 cases were registered under IPC section 498-A, 169 were reported under the dowry prohibition Act.

All India Men’s Welfare Association on World Men’s Day held a rally claiming that they were victims of `biased’ laws that support only women. They demanded amending the Constitution (Article 51E) to uphold the dignity of men and amending IPC 497 dealing with adultery.

Terming their demands as absurd, CPI (M) legislative party leader K. Balabharathi said these organisations were basically against giving equal rights to women and attempting to reverse the progress achieved in bringing special Acts to protect women.

These Acts were passed in Parliament dominated by men, after discussions. There is no point demanding the repeal of such Acts now, she said, and demanded a ban on organisations against women’s rights. two-sides According to state crime record bureau data, 163 dowry related deaths have been reported in TN till October.

All India Men’s Welfare Association on World Men’s Day held a rally claiming that they were victims of ‘biased’ laws that support only women.

Here is a misreporting on the last line. It is not “laws that support only women” that AIMWA is against but laws that are against men. A law that is pro-women need not be anti-male. But in the case of impugned laws viz: Sec 498A, D.V.Act etc, they are blatantly detrimental to men and in the process cause havoc to the lives of women too.

But the agenda of AIMWA is not confined to fighting against such biased laws but has a wider mosaic to cover the welfare of young boys whose future is under threat from various nefarious forces.

But what one wonders is why the commie feminists running AIDWA get flustered when men join together for the welfare of the society!

These feminists who cry from housetops about women’s right are very eloquently silent about the allegations of sexual harassment against P.J.Joseph, a minister in Kerala cabinet headed by Communist Party (Marxist). The complainant, a T.V.anchor Lakshmi Gopakumar still insists that the allegations are true.

And AIDWA is sure to have a responsibility to explain their stand to the people in the matter of a Sri Lankan woman’s complaint of sexual harassment and cheating against a senior Communist Party leader Mr. C. Mahendran.

The harassed husbands association took out a victory procession in the city on Monday following the central government’s directive to states not to make immediate arrests in dowry cases.

The Akhil Bharatiya Patni Athyachar Virodhi Sangh took out their ‘vijay yatra’ around 2 pm from Manav Mandir to Gandhiji’s statue at Income Tax. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked state governments to issue directives to the police not to arrest the husband and his relatives without proper investigations in anti-dowry cases.

The harassed husbands association president Dashrath Devda said, “Since the implementation of Section 498A of IPC across the country in 1984, it has been often misused by women for petty ends and to send their husbands and family members behind bars on false grounds.”

Outside court, the man and his family members are made to shell out a lot of money as part of the settlement, Devda said. “Our Sangh organised a lot of protests objecting to the gross misuse of Section 498A. Recently, the apex court said the section was misused. The court directive to the government that only after proper investigation should a man be arrested in anti-dowry cases is a blessing for harassed men,” he said.

“At present we have 48,000 cases of husbands being harassed by women. And every month we get around 250 such cases. Our organisation tries to help and save husbands harassed by their wives,” he said.

It is customary in India for estranged wives to demand huge alimony and maintenance from husbands and the courts are generally sympathetic and favourable to wives in these matters, as in child custody disputes.

But Mr. Kalaichelvan underwent extreme amount of torture in the hands of his former wife which had rendered him a “pauper”.

A correction in the newspaper report: Mr. Kalaichelvan was in jail for 24 days and not as reported.

Read on:

Deccan Chronicle reports:-

In an unusual case, a 43-year-old civil engineer has approached the family courts here seeking alimony Rs 25 lakh from his ex-wife, an assistant professor at a reputed university, whom he had divorced a year ago.

In his petition, Mr Kalaiselvan, claimed that he had lost his lucrative job in Kuwait and all his savings because of the legal battle over divorce and custody of their child.

“My ex-wife Malarvizhi was unemployed when I married her in 1997 while I had a decent job abroad,” he said. “My life was ruined after the marriage turned sour and today I am literally in the streets but Malar is well settled. The court has accepted my case and the first hearing will be held on December 15.”

Although the couple separated within a year after the marriage, Malarvizhi and Kalaiselvam applied for a divorce only in 2002.

“Between 2002 and 2006, I had to come to India on at least 20 occasions to fight the case,” said Mr Kalaiselvan. “During this period, I lost my job.”

Mr Kalaiselvan said that his wife and in-laws had also filed a case against him under the Dowry Harassment Act and that he spent three months in jail. “My divorce came through last year and I even got custody of the child,” he said. “But in the process I became a pauper.”

Deccan Chronicle reports:

An Asst Sub-Inspector of Police set on fire by his wife on International Men’s Day.

A quarrel over a petty issue took an ugly turn when an enraged wife set her husband, a police officer, on fire here, police said on Thursday.

The victim, 52-year-old assistant sub-inspector Balwant Pawar, sustained 85 per cent burns and is admitted to Government Medical College and Hospital, Aurangabad. Ironically, the incident took place on International Men’s Day.

According to police, Pawar had a tiff with his wife over some petty issue on Wednesday night when he returned home. Irked over this, she poured kerosene over him and set him on fire, they said.

Pawar was working with the MIDC Cidco police station. The Begampura police have registered a case and are investigating further.

Men from across the city began calling the All-India Men’s Welfare Association for help immediately after its launch on Thursday! Although the association does not have an office yet, the founder-members have opened a helpline. Besides, they organize meetings every Sunday at the Press Club.

Men can discuss their problems with counsellors Vivek Deveshwar and Mithun Kumar. The committee has five active members, apart from Vivek and Mithun, all of whom are software professionals. Vivek said: “Our approach includes counselling, and at the same time not letting men think of themselves as victims and getting into the self-pity mode.” In cases of matrimonial or other family disputes, they offer legal assistance.

A 61-year-old man called the helpline on Thursday saying he has filed a suit for getting maintenance from his son. Another call was from a divorced man who has been rejected visitation rights. He has a 1-year-old son.

Men who have already faced such problems joined the association, and many have volunteered to help. An advocate who has faced and dealt with harassment through matrimonial cases has eagerly supported the cause, offering legal assistance.

The association intends to open two more helplines for those who speak Kannada.

The All India Men’s Welfare Association (AIMWA) it appears, has a series of grouses to be addressed by society at large: that men have always been portrayed as the tough sex, and so boys are trained to hide their emotions; men are treated as ATMs and ‘sperm donors’ and are thus exploited, the world persistently asks women what their problems are, but doesn’t bother about men…

Ever since Independence, women have been mollycoddled by ministries and commissions, but none have been instituted for poor Adam. Statistics have it that a man commits suicide every nine minutes, double the ratio of women ending their lives, worldwide – which shows that they have reached the end of their tether. It is these issues that AIMWA will address, say men’s activists.

Demand father’s rights

It also has more serious issues on hand: the taxation disparity and unfavourable custodian rights of fathers. Vivek Deveshwar, counsellor and founder-member of AIWMA, said: “Most fathers are deprived of custody of their children and only mothers get the right. Even after that, mothers feel insecure and snatch visitation rights from men. Where is the justice? There is not even a quasi-constitutional body to hear our problems and protect us.”

The association, questioning the regulations of the National Commission for Women, alleged that it is essentially against men. They want the Centre to form a National Commission for Men and abolish the NCW. They also demand a ministry for men’s welfare, which will implement the commission’s recommendations on behalf of the government.

Demands include rationalisation of taxes and permission for single adult men to adopt children before the age of 30.

Prostrate cancer, which affects men, is a serious issue never attended to by the health ministry. “While there is so much being done for breast cancer in women, prostrate cancer has never been addressed,” added Vivek.

International Men’s Day has been chosen for the launch of the association at Bangalore, with centres at Delhi and Mumbai opening shorty. Centres have helplines to address problems of men in their respective states. They will urge the Centre to consider their demands.

Helplines available: 9880763790, 9886368480

website: www.aimwa.info

The “dominant sex”— male — is not so dominant after all. Forming solidarity on the eve of International Men’s Day (IMD) on Thursday, pro-men activists in Bangalore are set to launch an All India Men’s Welfare Association and demand creation of a Men’s Welfare Ministry, among other things.

The Association has drafted a charter that asks for a holiday on IMD, paternity leave, and a study on the treatment men get in different spheres of socio-economic life. The Association has asked all male employees in Bangalore to take mass leave on Thursday and “declare their independence and celebrate their freedom”.

“Man is depicted as a fiend who is out to exploit women. It’s reflected in the societal attitude, right from the mother’s lap and lasts till the grave,” bemoans Virag Dhulia, a researcher for the Save Indian Family Foundation that was formed a few years ago to provide legal succour to men fighting marital cases.

Virag is rich in details and ladles out examples where men are silent sufferers: “First, discrimination comes in the form of false image of dominance: man should not cry, he should shoulder responsibility for the welfare of women, he must do all risky tasks. Giving them false values are the scriptures that put man at a psychological disadvantage. In society, right from the elementary schools to the judiciary, he is suspect till he proves himself otherwise.”

“The government even has an Animal Welfare Board but the sex that gives 82 per cent tax revenue and does all the unpleasant and hazardous jobs, the fruit of which is mainly enjoyed by women, have no place in India’s scheme of things,” regrets the new body’s website aimwa.info launched on Monday. “Men,” it exhorts, “let’s unite and fight societal attitude, not women.”

“No, we are not against women. We’re for gender parity,” clarifies Vivek Deveshwar, another activist in the forefront. “Men face humiliation in every step. For instance, government gives great importance to breast cancer and blood cancer in women, but hardly anything on prostrate cancer, a disease men are prone to. In advertisements and cartoons, a male is portrayed as stupid, while women are witty and smart.”

Mithun Kumar, one of the leaders, told DNA, “In every step, a man suffers ignominy. To take the latest example, look at how the media treated the case of a woman who barged into the marriage hall. The man had no voice, nobody believed him or asked for his view.” Kumar says even the World Economic Forum keeps harping on the dwindling population of girls without any valid study.

“It’s unfortunately true that men are becoming victims of ‘legal terrorism’ unleashed through laws like Indian Penal Code Section 498A, Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence Act, adultery laws and many other laws, all loaded against men,” says veteran lawyer of many fights, MG Kumar. p_surendran@dnaindia.net

It was organized by the renowned social activists dedicated to upholding of the family values and fellow team members of the Save Indian Family foundation and similar NGOs.

Press coverage of the launch by The Times of India:

HYDERABAD:It wasn’t the voices of victimised women but those of men complaining of “wicked wives” that were heard the the most during this domestic violence awareness month that ends today, October 31.

The month may have been earmarked to coax women to step out of their homes to file cases against cruel husbands, but in Hyderabad men were seen asking “aggrieved” husbands to report the ill-treatment meted out to them by their wives.

Having found a confidant in each other, these men, claiming to be victims of false dowry harassment cases and domestic abuse, toured the city roads distributing pamphlets about the absence of a law to protect them against such ill-treatment and the need for more “male-oriented” policies. They held campaigns and seminars where they accused the society of being biased towards women and prejudiced against men, and went from one locality to the other asking other traumatised husbands to come forward and report such incidents.

The “tortured spouses” also launched an All-India Men’s Welfare Association (AIMWA) to take their battle to a higher level and call for a separate ministry for safeguarding the interests of men like them. “India even has a separate ministry for animals. Why should the men be left out then?” said S Venugopal, convener of Save India Family Foundation (SIFF), Andhra Pradesh chapter, the body that facilitated the launch of AIMWA. Venugopal, who joined this group around six months ago says that the awareness about these social groups is increasingly growing among men in the state who, unlike in the past, are now willing to come out and share their experiences with the world. “When I joined SIFF there were indeed a few others like me. But today the numbers have doubled”, he said.

Parthasarathy T R, one of the founders of AIMWA agrees with this as he goes on to point out how the three helplines, that are available for such male victims, have not stopped ringing ever since they held these rallies. “Each of these numbers receive close to 30-40 calls a day as against 10-15 previously, from distressed husbands”, he said. These organisations are also conducting an increased number of counselling sessions for such men now, who they say, tend to develop suicidal tendencies if not attended to. “The pain and agony that men go through, when subjected to domestic violence is much like what women face, when ill-treated. But everybody sympathises with the women, the men find no listeners”, said Mohammed Jaleel a member of AIMWA adding, “Whenever I tried to tell people how I was wrongly framed, they either thought I was mad or was trying to cover my misdeeds of harassing my wife by saying all that. Nobody believed anything that I said until I joined this forum.”

Curiously, much like in the case of women, the stories of harassment of these husbands are also related to their in-laws. While some complain of their in-laws forcing them to become “ghar jamais”, others allege that their influential in-laws have got them beaten up by the police without even filing a case. Home truths of another kind.

About AIMWA:

All India Men’s Welfare Association (AIMWA) was launched in Hyderabad on the 11^th October 2009 to work in the area of elimination of all kinds of discrimination against boys and men. Today, this press conference is being conducted to launch the Bangalore Chapter of the same.

Why Men’s Welfare:

Ask someone about the problems of women and a list would emerge that would never seem to end. Ask about men’s problems and all one sees is blank faces. Does that mean that men do not have any problems? Or is it that there is no awareness for the same, as mirrored in the statement – “Absence of evidence is not an evidence of absence.”?

Hence, in the backdrop of this emptiness, the Government and the society have absolutely no Locus-Standi to deny accepting men’s issues or avoid addressing them. And it is this emptiness which has led to the formation of AIMWA, to study men’s issues and demand for a National Commission for Men and Men’s Welfare Ministry.

Men and their identity:

Today, expectations from men have skyrocketed and acceptance levels for them have nosedived. In fact, there is no limitation to expectations from men and no acceptance of their limitations.

Today men are expected to,

And not only for the above, men have been expected to undertake the most risky and laborious jobs since time immemorial and also have been expected to be the de-facto PROTECTOR as well. It is not unusual to expect a 10 years old male child to escort and protect 30 years old able-bodied female aunty and it is also not unusual to expect a young boy to take charge when some monkey enters a household in rural areas.

However, at the same time, the de-facto protector is left unprotected with no protection available to him. Additionally, men are emotionally castrated right from the age of 6 as they are discouraged from expressing their pains and feelings. Dialogues like, “Do not cry like a girl”, “Be a man” are quite normal for the society to a 6 year old boy whose psyche and identity is just evolving. And the impact of these statements is so deep that the boy develops a fear of self-expression and remains numb to abuse the rest of his life.

As a result, men are finding emotional confrontations extremely painful when they grow up and most men contemplate suicidal tendencies during emotional turmoil in their relationship and a reasonable percentage of them actually commit suicide. The same is corroborated by suicide statistics,

Other than these, men face domestic violence from their wives and in-laws in the form of physical, emotional, mental, verbal and economic abuse. Added to this neither the society (including psychologists and marriage counselors) provides these men with any communication channel nor does the Government offer any legal relief.

Some other forms of harassment and discrimination faced by men,

National Commission for Women – The Enemy in the veil:

It is very clear that under the barb and paradoxical veil of “Women Empowerment”, the NCW is perpetrating male-hatred and is working like a “National Commission against Men” instead of “National Commission for Women”.

On the occasion of 19^th November the INTERNATIONAL MEN’s DAY AIMWA places the following of its demands from the Government and the society:

AIMWA aims to work for men’s welfare and urge the Government and the society to take serious note of the problems of men.

All India Men’s Welfare Association, Bangalore