LUCKNOW, Nov 21 — Shrews, beware: Indian husbands tired of being harassed by their wives have banded together to demand that the local government create a male protection society.
The men, who said they had had enough of their “nagging” wives, dressed up in clothes traditionally worn by grooms and paraded through the northern city of Lucknow this week to ask for a National Commission for Men.
“We are asking for equal rights. We want somebody to listen to the grievances of men,” said Subhash Dube, a medical doctor who described himself as a victimised husband.
The call came as activists celebrated International Men's Day on Thursday.
The president of the All India Welfare Committee for Husbands, Indu Pandey, said statistics showed abuse of a section of the penal code meant to protect women against their husbands.
“Demands to amend this law have been put forward a lot of times. Therefore, we oppose this law,” he said.
Most of the misuse of the law has been related to dowry issues, with women and their family members registering false claims that they have been harassed by their husbands or their families about not paying enough, Pandey said.
In India, dowries of money, jewellery or other assets are given by the parents or the family of the bride to the groom.
This tradition was banned by law in 1961 but remains common, and if the groom or his family are unhappy with their dowry they often physically and emotionally abuse the wife.
Indian police receive hundreds of complaints of harassment related to dowries every day from women, and are required to investigate deaths of women within a few years of marriage as possible dowry-related deaths.
But according to a report by The Tribune, figures from India's National Crime Record Bureau showed that 165,000 married men killed themselves between 2005 and 2007, about twice the 88,000 women recorded.
And Vikas Kapur, coordinator for Save Indian Family Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, said that around 22,000 Indian men had committed suicide over harassment by their wives over dowry issues, far outnumbering the 6,800 suicides by women who were harassed for dowries.
And in all these women's suicides, The Tribune reported, the husbands had been jailed without investigation — although 68 per cent of them were later found to be innocent.
Seeking equality for men, the NGO has called for the setting up of a “Men's Welfare Ministry” and a national commission for men. It also urged the government to abolish what it described as anti-male laws, and to replace the word “wife'” in these laws with the word “spouse”. — Reuters
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