Women’s safety is a huge issue in our country. The increase in the number of cases of rapes and violence against them is certainly disturbing. And as a result of it, we discuss it everywhere, right from newsroom debates to the social networking websites.
But, wait a second. Is it always the case that a woman only is victimized? Can’t the same thing happen to a man? And if yes, then why are we so reluctant to talk about it? So for a change, lets try to discuss about cases where women are the culprit and men are the victims. And in case you are an adamant die hard one dimensional feminist, you must stop reading right now.
The majority of false acquisition cases against men generally happens at the time of divorce. The section 498A of the Indian Penal Code has given women enough powers to destroy a man single handily. It states that-
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. The offence is Cognizable, non-compoundable and non-bailable.
Just one false charge filed by a woman puts the husband along with his entire family in jeopardy. The section 498A gives the liberty to women to torture the man in case of a marriage falling apart, which might be because of any reason. All she has to say is that her husband was cruel or he demanded dowry. She doesn’t have to prove it, just say it. The cushion provided by the government to a woman makes sure that there is no way in which a man can fight back if he is innocent.
The best example of this case is of Syed Makdoom, who committed suicide on 5th April 2009. He had to take this extreme step as he was being continuously tortured by his wife and in-laws. On top of that, he wasn’t even allowed to visit his son. He left a suicide note in the form of a video, where he explained all these things. Here is the link to it – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrGmSI-xdTk
It’s not just the story of Syed Makdoom, thousands of others are also falling prey to the misuse of this law by women.
(Source)
In another case when a man went to police and asked for protection from his wife as he was in an abusive relationship with her, the police couldn’t do anything and sent him home as there were no laws for men in such cases. The only option left with him was to file a divorce on the grounds of abuse, and so he did. As soon as the wife heard about it, she went in front of his house and created a huge scene, insulting him and his family. She went ahead to file a case of dowry against the man and his family. The result of it was, the man couldn’t handle the humiliation and ended up committing suicide.
Look at this chart and understand for yourself, what a man does when he is being stripped naked and harassed in front his entire community. What’s even more surprising is the ratio of men and women who commit suicide in cases of failed marriages.
Victimization of a male doesn’t stop here. The majority of cases filed against men on the grounds of rape has turned out to be false. The weak structure of the law gives undue advantage to women in case of such criminal charges.
According to a report by The Hindu, there were a total of 1636 rape cases registered in Delhi in 2013. Out of these, 583 were decided, and out of these 583 only 133 were convicted. This means, a conviction rate of only 23%. Others were found innocent. (Link)
The major reasons which were found behind this high number of false charges were, breach of promise to marry (25%) and the other 40% dealt with consensual sex. Here the parents of the girl would file an FIR once they came to know about the relationship of their daughter with a guy. The rapists here are not actually rapists, but victims instead. And they need to be protected from the extreme societal humiliation which they have to face once a tag is being given to them.
If you want to look at the bigger picture of it, then the following statistics issued by the National Crime Records Bureau will help you out. Based on section 498A of IPC, a total of 23,04,200 arrests have been made since 1998, and out of this only 2,60,280 were convicted. Just look at this ratio, imagine how many innocent people have been called as rapists till date.
It clearly tells us that the laws which exist in our country are not equal for both the genders. Injustice is happening in the name of justice to women. If a case has been filed on oblique motives, then that person equally deserves punishment. Rape is a huge crime, but falsely accusing a man of being a rapist is also something which cannot be ignored.
One major reason why these cases don’t come in public is our media. Media has always shown little interest in showing stories of false acquisitions. Maybe it’s because these stories don’t have the potential to attract viewership. No matter what the reason is, cases of men facing the heat are always kept under the surface.
Deal with rape cases. Deal with domestic violence. Deal with women empowerment. But not at the cost of infringement of men’s rights. Even after all these numbers and statistics, not much has been done to make the laws equal for both genders. Decisions should not be based on single statements, and jail term should be there for false cases as well.
It’s not always women who need to be empowered, men need it too.
