International Men"s day: Spare A Thought to Stop Legal Terrorism against Men.

When violence against women and girls are always on everyone's agenda, abuse of boys or men is never talked about or discussed.

Many even do not know in a recent Women and Child ministers survey report show the sexual abuse of boys are 53% vs 47% girls as child.

As a result we see there is no welfare system in place for boys and the need of security and well being of boys is completely ignored simply based on their gender. Whenever this issue comes up in any discussion it is said that Indian boys never face any discrimination. This survey tries to capture the childhood abuse of Indian boys so that their issues can be highlighted and correct data can be presented to lawmaking bodies.

Now as the boys cross 18+ years and get termed as Men, suddenly all abuse or crime against them get vanished by default?

Suicide of Men due to Legal Terrorism in India

Crimes against men are ignored amidst the noise around crimes against women. India has ministries for environment, women and child welfare ( WCD) and a National Commission for Women , thousand of Women NGO — but it has no ministry or tribunal for men.

Since men are ignored in the lawmaking process, lawmakers do not represent men per se; there is around 50 pro-women laws whose usage in practice amount to being anti-men. They forget men are Human too and they also have right to Life and liberty as per Indian constitution article 21.

Men are Human too , Stop abuse them

The misuse of dowry harassment law (Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code) has invited strong observations from courts and various government committees. In Sushil Kumar Sharma vs Union of India, the Supreme Court equated misuse of IPC 498A to “legal terrorism”.

In 2003, the Justice Malimath Commission report on criminal justice reform recommended making offenses under IPC 498A bailable. Many other judgments have pointed to the gross misuse of this law. 

In October 2010, the Criminal Procedure Code was amended via CrPC Amendment Act 2008 to introduce CrPC Section 41A that laid down the procedure of arrests for all offenses that entail seven or fewer years of imprisonment and not just IPC 498a.

But only its applicability to IPC 498A is opposed by its misuser. The reason for this is that IPC 498A has evolved into a money-minting mechanism.

The steps are simple: File a case and get everyone in the family arrested. This starts the engine of money making right from arrests, release, litigation and settlement.

It is worth noting that the number of cases and arrests under IPC 498A has continued to increase, despite the introduction of Section 41A, while fewer cases have resulted in conviction.

This means that Section 41A procedures are not being followed, leading to the arrest of many innocents, the majority of whom are eventually exonerated by the courts.

Even now such arrests happen without investigations or due procedure. Women’s organizations are contesting the court judgment in the court of public opinion.

Keeping in mind maximum men are totally unaware about our criminal justice system  SIF with their limited resources,  try to educated masses through their various Training programs by which many victim false cases  able to prove their innocence in court than surrender in front of Legal terrorist . 

But such Training program may not able to give back the suffering one gone through , but help to reduce reduce your suffering and losses , it does not remove the root cause of such Legal Terrorism.

Need of the hour , A Gender Neutral Domestic Violence law and scrap IPC498A as in our IPC enough  laws like , blackmailing, extortion, attempt to murder laws capable to take care if there are any true allegations of abuse with prima face evidence against any men or women.

Terming someone criminal with mere verbal allegations via a non-bailable section is nothing but promoting Legal Terrorism only.

On the eve of International Men's day , it's time to relies the Legal Terrorism Indian men are facing is not a Joke , the same rightly deserve a spare of thought for all.

In 2011, the Rajya Sabha’s Committee on Petitions in its 140th Report on Amendments in IPC 498A observed that in case the gross misuse continues, IPC 498A should be made bailable and also that the misuse clause should be in the Section itself. 

The government should live up to its commitment to make this Section bailable  and to introduce the penalty clause in this law or scrap such criminal law, which is nothing but duplications of laws.

 
 

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