SIF Times

Severely Condemning derogatory ad on men

2008-09-10T10:41:00.000+05:30

Save Indian Family Foundation, strongly and severely condemns the Derogatory Ad being telecast at the behest of Kitply Industries. The ad shows a young timid man getting married to a woman and on the first night the bed crumbles. The wife asks the husband, “Kitply nahi laye kya?” (Have you not bought Kitply?) and slaps the husband.

Openly, brazenly and cold – bloodedly this ad not only depicts Domestic Violence on men but also promulgates it, inspiring women to do it and telling men that this is a way of life. World over international studies have proved it beyond doubt that Domestic Violence is not a gender specific issue and is a matter of equal concern for both men and women.

The situation is far worse in India wherein gender biased, lopsided, avaricious, pernicious, draconian, anachronous and unconstitutional anti – male marital laws fail to recognize the presence of Domestic Violence and acknowledge the same for men. Yes, Domestic Violence laws in India do not consider the fact that men too could be victims of Domestic Violence the way women are presumed and prejudiced to be and the Domestic Violence law in India does not allow men to make complaints of Domestic Violence in India.

This despite the fact holding true that as per Government records i.e. suicide date published by National Crime Records Bureau, every year 56, 000 married men are committing suicide which is considered as a social service in a great country like India, where 82 % of taxes are paid by men. Neither do men have a Men Welfare Ministry for them nor a National Commission for Men to look into their grievances, whereas animals do have. The condition of Indian men is worse than animals in India.

To add to the woes men are subject to the constant fear of being dragged into false cases of dowry harassment and domestic violence draining them financially, socially, morally and spiritually in addition to being victims of Domestic Violence as well at the hands of their vindictive and vicious wives and in – laws who do not forget to file false cases of dowry harassment on the innocent men and their families and drag them to police station and court and unleash Legal Terrorism on them and extort money legally from them.

As if all this was no less, when corporates like Kitply Industries rain on men and promote Domestic Violence on men as a norm and when confronted for the same, shamelessly claim that it has been shown in a humorous mood, and shrug away from accountability. The contention that the ad was shown in a light spirit is subject to critical analysis and not becoming of a brand name Kitply Industries.

Save Indian Family Foundation, the single largest umbrella NGO for about 15 different NGOs fighting not only for men’s rights but also for Gender Equality and Family Harmony, severely condemns such derogatory ads and demands apology from Kitply Industries, failing which Save Indian Family Foundation will be forced to issue legal notices to them to respond properly.

One can only imagine the kind of euphoria that would have been generated if they had shown a man slapping a woman in similar manner. So when activists championing the cause of Equality for Women are crying foul, why are they now silent when Gender Equality is critically endangered and its existence seriously jeopardized with such derogatory ad content. This only depicts the hollow goals with which such activists work and want to rake in the mullah in the name of Women Empowerment and feminism but do not believe in actual equality based on truth and justice.

Save Indian Family Foundation re – iterates its demand of an apology from Kitply Industries and once again puts this question to the civil society and the government that how long are they continuing to consider men as second class citizens in their own country?

Alimony - The Trojan Horse of Matrimony

2008-09-10T10:38:00.000+05:30

Irony defining life it seems has become a norm in today’s times. And it does not seem to spare the most controversial social institution, working as first step towards familial life, aka the INDIAN MARRIAGE. The irony here is that what starts as a pompous celebration and extravagant spending ends with financially, emotionally and spiritually draining litigation with mud – slinging from both sides aka the DIVORCE. And ending a marriage is very costly for a man, not only of because the fear of false cases of dowry harassment and domestic violence against him but also as he is liable to pay alimony or maintenance pedante lite to his wife.

The concept of alimony, although was designed with a noble intention of prevention of stranded and protection of destitute non – earning spouse, the same has increasingly become the single largest motivating factor for girls to break their marriages at the slightest sneeze of discomfiture in the relationship with their husbands. And in order to gain a beneficial and an empowered bargaining position in the negotiation for alimony they even do not refrain from filing false cases of Dowry Harassment against their husbands and in – laws and getting them arrested to plant fear in their mind to make them succumb to their heavy demands of alimony.

Thus, in today’s dynamic socio – economic scenario, alimony has become the Trojan Horse of matrimony. Girls know it very well that the moment they start losing control in the marriage or over their husband they can always walk out of it by entangling the husband in false cases of dowry harassment and domestic violence and harassing him so much that he agrees to pay the heavy ransom girls demand to release him from the forced slavery and give him the costly freedom called divorce.

Was ever alimony in divorce meant to be an easy route to tax – free money? Never. But with the existing rampant corruption amongst the police, judiciary and the legal system, men are made to pay heavy alimonies to their estranged wives for settling the false cases and everyone involved in the settlement gets a share of the pie. The practice is thriving like a flourishing business which is so anti – male in nature that every year 56, 000 married men are committing suicide, unable to bear the brunt of fallacy called, The Bad Marriage.

As its definition stands, alimony is subsistence – allowance which allows a non – capable spouse to maintain oneself post divorce. Spouses who are earning or are capable of earning based on their qualifications are not entitled to alimony. One might contend by the above definition that for working women / substantially educated women opting for divorce, as they are not entitled to alimony, their husbands need not worry, but it will be imperative to state here that increasing number of such cases are coming forth where either women have hidden the income and the fact that they earn or deliberately left job to squander money from husband.

Even if the woman is not able to maintain herself, then more than the husband, the parents of the woman are a greater culprit for not properly empowering their daughter with proper education and making her dependent on someone else, expecting that the marriage of their daughter with that person will last for eternity. And is it not the daughter’s right in her ancestral property, her legitimate due that she should get? Why are girl’s parents shrugging away from this responsibility of theirs and discriminating between a daughter and a son when distribution of wealth comes into picture? Why is it expected that only the husband is responsible to maintain the woman even when they are not staying together? Why the girl’s parents are not held responsible for such a condition of their daughter? Will the civil society at least think over these questions if not answer them?

NCW caught red handed speaking lies

2008-09-10T10:36:00.000+05:30

National Commission of Women (NCW) needs to be banned for its unethical activities.

1) They openly support adulterous women by claiming them as victims and seek amendments to grant maintenance to adulterous women.

2) They openly say, DO NOT BELIEVE THE MEDIA REPORTS.

3) They openly speak white lies as depicted below in the mail conversation between them. Read on.

Would the NCW like to clarify what does it mean by harsh?

1) Sending innocent mothers and sisters on the basis of an unverified complaint is not harsh?

2) Shielding 56, 000 husband killers is not harsh?

3) Fudging statistics to get foreign funds for implementing anti - family, avaricious, pernicious, draconian, anachronous, anti - male laws and unleashing them unto the society is not harsh?

4) Openly protecting the rights of adulterous, promiscuous women is not harsh?

5) Demanding multiple maintenance from males under pretext of false allegations is not harsh?, And last but not the least.

6) Turning away old mothers tortured by their unscrupulous daughter - in - laws and her parents is not harsh, saying this does not come under their ambit?

WILL THE NCW ANSWER?

And what realities they are talking of, why don’t they come out in public if they are so astute, devout and sincere?

with regard to your queries you are hereby informed that

1. that NCW does not send innocent mothers and sisters on the basis of an unverified complaint to jails we dont have such power in the first place

2. that the NCW does offer support to women in distress which may also include sisters and mothers and just daughter in laws therefore your presumptions on NCW is factually misleading

3. we do not fudge statistics the staistics are manintained by NCRB and not by NCW

4. ncw has not protected the rights of adulterous women i do not know from where you have gathered such information please do not beleive in media reports

5. we have not ever turned away old mothers etc any women requiring help is provided be it a mother sister or daufghter in law any one requiring assitance can approach us

6. we do not distinguish or categorise in fact you would be surprised to note that the NCW recommendations on implementation of Dowry related acts is that first and foremost resort to counselling and mediation with intention to save the marriage and family and only where a prima facie case exists then the legal recourse is to be taken to

any more queries ???

yogesh mehta

law officer

1) Then why has the NCW not taken any action for the 1, 20, 000 women arrested from 2004 -2007 on a mere FIR? Does NCW consider it right? Does it not consider it should make a move to protect those mothers and sisters who are harassed by police before being tried or convicted? Just answer Yes or NO.

2) Can NCW give me the statistics of the number of women as mothers and sisters it has helped vis - a vis the number of daughter - in - laws it has helped? Just answer Yes or NO. Does NCW maintain such categorized information. Just answer Yes or NO. If not reasons.

3) If you do not fudge statistics, then how did NCW made a claim that 70 % women are denied maintenance on adultery grounds and later when asked to publish source data for it, categorically denied having such information. News link. Do you consider this as fudging of statistics. Just answer Yes or NO. NCW Supporting Adultery. See Link1

4) It is the same media reports based on which you keep shouting on violence on women. And now that I have official email from NCW telling me not to believe media reports. Let the media also know about it. If NCW does not protect the rights of adulterous women by making propositions to remove the adultery clause in maintenance. Do you think this is not supporting adulterous women. Just answer Yes or NO.

5) I would like you to provide me details to convince me how many cases have you have resolved with mediation and how many women other than wives have been genuinely helped by NCW.

PS: We, at Save Indian Family Foundation do not consider the advice to file a case as genuine help as it does not help either. So answer keeping this note in mind.

1) It has been brought to NCW’s notice several times thro’ media. And now also I am bringing it to your notice. What can you do for them? Or better what can you do to prevent such mishaps in future?

2) So categorically NCW cannot substantiate its claim of having supported mothers and sisters?

3) Some cases?? How many judgments do you have? The article makes no mention of that. And when NCW was sent an RTI application for data supporting the claim that in 70 % of cases, women are denied maintenance for adultery why did the NCW reply that it does not maintain such information. If the NCW does not maintain such information, why was it published in Media and if the information was not given by NCW why has NCW not taken action against the tabloid for printing information without approval. This means NCW has got the information published and then later denied having source of that information. Do you consider its ethical on part of NCW to behave in such a manner. I want an answer in YES or NO.

4) “NCW also sought another significant amendment to Section 125, saying that said adultery should no longer be a ground for denying maintenance to a woman. ”

This is from the article. Still you say NCW has not made such a claim and repeat it as well? Are you not writing white lies?? At least make some background research before writing an email. You are being watched by 15, 000 members. And on a discussion note, I would like to know why does NCW consider adultery should be made a civil offense? Adultery in a relationship tantamount to breach of trust. What makes NCW think per se that it is a civil offense and why should a woman be provided maintenance who has walked out of the relationship.

5) Read my point number 5 then revert back. I have asked for some information.

6) Oh sure I will, you do not worry about that.

Unemployed but Qualified wife- No maintanance

2008-09-02T17:09:00.000+05:30

IN THE COURT OF MS. MADHU JAIN : ADDL. DISTRICT JUDGE : ROHINI COURT : DELHI

M No. 28/07

Sh. Neeraj Aggarwal – Petitioner

Vs.

Mrs. Veeka Aggarwal – Respondent

ORDER

1.. This is an order on application under Section 24 of Hindu Marriage Act
filed by the applicant/ wife, respondent in the main case (hereinafter referred
to as the applicant) against the non-applicant/ husband, petitioner in the main
case (hereinafter referred to as the non-applicant) for grant of maintenance
pendentelite and for litigation expenses.

2.. In the application it is stated that the applicant/ wife has no
independent source of income and she is not given any kind of maintenance by the
non-applicant/ husband to live her life properly and therefore she is facing
much hardship in the life. The non-applicant/ husband has flatly refused to
maintain her. The non-applicant/ husband is working in a private sector as a
Senior Software Engineer HPC in STM Microelectronics Pvt. Ltd., Plot No.1 A,
Knowledge Park-2 (near LG Gol Chakkar), Greater Noida and is earning about Rs.
80,000/-pm. He has no other liability and he is not discharging his
responsibilities towards the applicant/ wife with ulterior motives to harass and
humiliate the applicant/ wife. The applicant/ wife is the legally wedded wife of
the non-applicant/ husband and, thus, being a husband, he is bound to maintain
the applicant/ wife. The applicant/ wife is fully dependent on the mercy of her
parents, who are having other liabilities also and she has no independent source
of income to maintain herself. It is, therefore, prayed that the non-applicant/
husband be directed to pay a sum of Rs. 30,000/-pm as maintenance allowance
pendentelite to the applicant/ wife and expenses of proceedings.

3.. The application has been contested by the non-applicant/ husband, who in
his reply has stated that the applicant/wife is a well qualified graduate
Engineer in the field of information Technology and just after the marriage she
had joined the service of a private firm and was drawing a handsome salary as
initially she was taking Rs. 5000/-pm. Now-a-days she is competent and qualified
to earn thousands of rupees per month. She is a qualified trained engineer and
she is self stand financially in all respects. The non-applicant/ husband has
never neglected or refused to maintain her in any manner and she was duly
maintained during her stay in her matrimonial home. The non-applicant/ husband
is still ready and willing to provide financial assistance or maintenance if
required or needed by her for any purpose in any manner. It is not denied that
the non-applicant/ husband is also a qualified engineer and is employed in
Greater Noida, U.P. but the actual amount of monthly salary being drawn by him
is Rs. 45,000/-pm. It is stated that he has to maintain his retired father and
ailing, diabetic mother and old grandmother and also to treat his two married
sisters and to look-after his younger unmarried under-education sister of
marriageable age as his younger sister is doing B.Ed. from a regular college. He
is also paying loan premiums and other household expenses. The applicant/ wife
has herself deserted her matrimonial home without any threats or atrocities
caused to her by her in-laws and she is not returning to her matrimonial home
despite the petition for restitution of conjugal rights filed by the
non-applicant/ husband. It is stated that the non-applicant/ husband is publicly
and openly as well as warmly welcoming the applicant/ wife to her matrimonial
home but she has started demanding maintenance sitting in her parental home to
feed her greedy parents and selfish relatives instead of returning to her
matrimonial home and to assist the non-applicant/ husband and her other in-laws
in her matrimonial home at the time of need. It is stated that the conduct,
attitude and nature of the applicant/ wife is of such type that she is not
entitled for any maintenance. Further more, she has also filed a separate
petition U/s 125Cr. P.C. for maintenance only with a view to get the
non-applicant/ husband harassed in a criminal court. It is stated that the
applicant/ wife is not a helpless or poor lady and she is not incapable to
maintain herself as she is a well qualified engineer and is already an earning
hand. She is handing over all her income to her parents. She does not require
any monastery assistance from the non-applicant/ husband as she is already
having a good bank balance in State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur at Rohini,
Sector-5, Delhi, bearing A/c No. 61005521399 and several other bank accounts
also. She also has some immovable properties in her name. It is denied that she
requires Rs. 30,000/- as maintenance and other charges as prayed. It is,
therefore, prayed that the application be dismissed with heavy cost.

4.. I have heard the Ld. Counsel for both the parties and have carefully
perused the record.

5.. During the course of arguments it has not been denied by the Counsel for
the applicant/ wife that the applicant/ wife herself is an engineer graduate in
the field of Information Technology. Ld. Counsel for the applicant/ wife
submitted that the applicant/ wife submitted that the applicant/ wife joined the
job for some time after the marriage but thereafter due to the marital disputes
she is not in a position to pursue her job and has left the same. In her entire
application the applicant/ wife has no where stated that she is also an engineer
graduate in the field of Information Technology and that she also joined the job
after her marriage. Those seeking justice and equity from the Court must come to
the court with clean hands. It seems that for obvious reasons and to extract
money the applicant/ wife has not disclosed her true qualifications in the
Court. The applicant/ wife is an engineer graduate and, therefore, can very well
maintain herself and there is no need for her to depend upon the mercy of her
parents or on the non-applicant/ husband. The purpose of Section 24 of H.M. Act
is not to extract money from the other party and the court should not be a forum
to extract the money or to blackmail the other party. In II (2000) DMC 170
titled as Mamta Jaiswal Vs. Rajesh Jaiswal, the Hon’ble Madhya Pradesh High
Court has observed as under:-

“Section 24 – Pendente Lite Alimony : Purpose of Enactment : Not meant for
supporting idle (Qualified) spouses waiting for ‘Dole’ to be Awarded by her
husband – Section 24 has been enacted for purpose of providing monetary
assistance to such spouse who is incapable of supporting himself/ herself in
spite of sincere efforts – Spouse well qualified to get service immediately with
less efforts is not expected to remain idle to squeeze out his/her purse by cut
in nature of pendent elite alimony – Wife well qualified woman possessing
qualification like M.Sc., M.C. M.Ed – How can such a lady remain without service
– lady who is fighting matrimonial petition filed for divorce, cannot be
permitted to sit idle and put her burden on husband for demanding – pendente
lite alimony from him during pendency of matrimonial petition.”

6.. In I (2001) DMC 19 titled Sangitaben Rasiklal Jaiswal Vs. Sanjay Kumar
Ratilal Jaiswal, Mehsana, the Hon’ble Gujarat High Court has held that the wife
is entitled for Free Legal Aid and therefore, the Court should keep in mind that
wife is entitled for free legal services also.

7.. In the present case the applicant/ wife is a well qualified engineer and,
therefore, there is no need for her to sit idle at home waiting for the
maintenance from the non-applicant/ husband. In the peculiar facts and
circumstances of the case since the applicant/ wife is well qualified and,
therefore, can earn handsome amount by working and there is no need for her to
be financially dependent upon her parents or on the non-applicant/ husband, she
is not entitled for any maintenance. While hearing arguments on the application
it was ordered that the maintenance shall be granted to the wife till the
disposal of the petition. This sentence in order sheet dated 27.08.2007 only
means that the wife is entitled for the maintenance from the date of filing of
the application till the disposal of the main petition and not thereafter. It no
where reflects that the wife shall be entitled to maintenance I every case come
what may.

8.. Therefore, in view of the above said discussion, the application U/s 24
Hindu Marriage Act of the applicant/ wife is dismissed. There shall be no orders
as to cost. File be consigned to Record Room.

Announced in Open Court

Dated : 19.09.2007

Google Censorship

2008-08-27T12:36:00.000+05:30

>>>Google Censorship<<<

The major search engines censor access to many web sites. 11 min

They all have internal organizations responsible for executing the censoring policies of their company. We can be confident that none of these organizations is called the “Censoring Division”. The people in these organizations may also sincerely believe that what they are doing is in the best interests of their users and that every single site that they block is “doing something wrong”.

The problem with Internet censoring is the same as any other form of censoring. As history has repeatedly demonstrated, once you start censoring it is very hard to stop. It is always possible to rationalize that people would be better off if they didn't have access to certain information.

Google has often censored some of my own pages. These pages have completely and utterly disappeared from their search engines. They do not exist!

(And please do not bother writing to me to explain that this might be because their 'blind' algorithms might simply have changed - because I have far too much evidence pointing to the conclusion that these 'algorithms' include site-specific and/or page-specific instructions and I also know the internet extremely well.)

You see; Google has a problem. And it is this.

Just like the telephone companies, Google claims that it cannot possibly have any responsibility for what information flows through its system. After all, in much the same way that the telephone companies cannot possibly monitor all the billions of telephone conversations that flow through their systems, Google cannot possibly monitor all the information on the billions of webpages that it lists.

Or so it claims.

And, on the surface, this claim seems to be a reasonable one.

BUT!

If Google is, indeed, censoring information (e.g. delisting pages from its search engines or demoting them in the rankings because of their content) then, quite clearly, it is monitoring this information.

And if it is monitoring this information, then it can surely be deemed to be liable for the presentation of it!

And if this was the case then, for example, this would mean that Google could be held responsible for any libel that appeared on webpages that it had listed - or, perhaps, responsible for aiding terrorists etc etc etc.

In short; if Google admits to monitoring, then it can be held to be 'liable'.

So, Google is somewhat stuck between a rock and a hard place.

On the one hand, it proudly proclaims to be a defender of free speech and that it would not dream of censoring (blocking, de-listing, demoting etc etc) any webpages of information, and it insists most strongly that, therefore, it cannot possibly be held liable for any of the content but, on the other hand, it does not want to upset governments; and it can only do this by doing what governments tell them.

And so Google has chosen to worm its way out of this dilemma by, quite simply, accommodating to the wishes of governments - and lying to the people about it.

Now some of my long-time readers might recall that the last time that I had a barney with Google - when, if you believe it, they removed all advertising from a single innocuous page concerning men's issues on my other website - I had to maraud around for three or four days demonstrating to Google that I would trawl the internet here, there and everywhere in order to spread the news about Google's heinous activities to whomsoever might seem interested - especially journalists.

And I think that what finally convinced Google to be more accommodating was me pointing out the fact that not only was I, clearly, a very energetic activist, but that rushing around the internet badmouthing Google would do absolute wonders for my site's traffic - and that, therefore, I would find the experience most rewarding - which meant that I was very unlikely to stop badmouthing Google hither and thither - week after week if necessary.

My ads came back.

Well, it looks as if I am now going to have to create a fuss over www.HarrietHarmanSucks.Com - because its pages have been disappeared into the abyss - having all first appeared for a few days hovering between pages 5 and 20 following a search for "Harriet Harman"

And so my plan is this.

I am going to write a piece about why Google needs to be 'controlled' and restricted in some way and explain how outrageous it is that it should have so much power.

And then I am going to start marauding around the internet again.

Because, ....

I will not be censored!

LOL!

(And you can forget all the BS about Google being a private company and so it should be able to de-list or demote whatever pages it likes, because it is illegal for companies to cheat people. And if Google is censoring my pages, then it is cheating the people most horribly!)

The alternative, I suppose, is to re-write the pieces so that they are less 'hostile'.

Hmmm.

I'll think about it.

Maybe if I grovelled to Harriet Harman in my pieces instead of castigating her Google would re-list my pages.

Grovel. Grovel.

LOL!

Huh!

I would rather that my missus be torn apart and devoured slowly by a gruesome herd of flesh-eating crocodiles.

(While I watched her writhing in agony, ate ice cream, and chatted to my new girlfriend, of course!)

Anyway. The piece above is very good indeed, and definitely worth reading.

+ We have private companies like Google deciding what we can and can't see based on their self-interested readings of poorly-drafted national laws, taking advice from unnamed and unaccountable Government agencies and telling nobody what is going on. Bill Thompson

And, of course, this is one of the ways in which western governments intend to stifle dissent.

This is the deal in a nutshell.

Government: "If you, Google, do not disappear from view those most effective pieces that are hostile to us, then we shall bring some kind of law to bear upon you."

Google: "Yes Sir. No Sir. Three bags full, Sir."

Government: "But you must not tell the people of this secret deal."

Google: "Yes Sir. No Sir. Three bags full, Sir."

There is no question in my mind that this is going on.

And this means that we do not have a democracy.

Of course, Google would not dare to nobble websites that were very influential - because too many influential people might get upset about it.

So, between them, Google and the government keep it all secret and under the carpet.

In other words, as usual, our own governments - and, in this case, Google - are cheating us.

And talk about hypocrisy! - with all our politicians forever criticising the Chinese government for blocking access to websites that are critical of government and its officials, when they are doing something very similar over here.

Indeed, our governments - through their officials - are lying to us all the time.

Furthermore, when, at the time, I did a whole load of research into the matter of 'adverts' and the 'blacklisting' of them, it became fairly clear to me that the sites that had lost their adverts were mostly on the right side of the political spectrum in that they were often anti-feminist and/or not politically correct.

So, as in so many other areas, my guess is that internet activists who are anti-feminist and/or not politically correct are also having to cope with the customary institutionalised biases against them; but this time, with the aid of Google.

But decent lefties must also be very much concerned about this, firstly, because it might not be too long before those who are pulling the strings are more right-wing and, secondly, because "men's issues" have precious little to do with being on the left or the right of the political spectrum; because when it come to issues of concern to 'men', the official left and right are just as bad as each other.

In other words, all men should be very concerned indeed about Google's underhand censorship because not only does this undermine the democratic process most seriously, it also means that those activists who are fighting the corner for 'men' (rightly or wrongly) are being unfairly treated and that the issues of concern to 'men' are - once again - being purposely sat upon and hidden.

Recognition of women’s rights on Women’s Rights Equality Day August 26, 2008

2008-08-10T21:05:00.000+05:30

To,

<>

Sub: Recognition of women’s rights on Women’s Rights Equality Day August 26, 2008

Respected Sir / Madam,

On the occasion of Women’s Rights Equality Day we would like to draw your attention towards a topic gaining momentum in all strata, be it the media, society, or the legislative or executive environment - the ‘Wide and Rampant misuse of Women Protection Laws vide section 498A Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860), Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 leading to mass destruction of the social fabric and familial system of India. It’s a pity to note that this destruction of families is happening under the patronage of the Indian Legal System in the barb and paradoxical veil of “Women Empowerment and Protection”.

Although drafted with the sanest of intentions; to provide women with security in a marriage, of late, due to the large number of false cases making their way to courts, the protector’s shield has become the assassin’s weapon. The women NGOs also, who are supposed to be working as watchdogs, have turned into bloodhounds by discriminating between women related to husbands and wives and failing to recognize, empathize and redress the grievances of those fateful mothers and sisters who have been through the ordeal of seeing their son and brother suffering at the hands of an unjust and almost defunct legal system.

Save Indian Family Foundation, an international network of individuals and NGOs, is working for promotion of Gender Equality and Family Harmony, makes a pleading before your Excellency/good office on behalf of the bereaved and beleaguered mothers and sisters, victimized under false allegations of dowry harassment by their daughters –in – law and their advisors/parents, to kindly look into this matter. One complaint from the daughter –in – law lands the whole family including ailing senior citizens, minor children, as well as pregnant women behind bars and ruins their life in a whiff of a moment. All this happens without investigation and in most of the cases, hefty ransoms are demanded to settle the case.

As per National Crime Records Bureau, in the last 4 years, (2004 – 2007), 1, 20, 645 innocent women have been arrested without investigation / trial under 498A cases.

1) Is this women empowerment- that on an unverified complaint of one woman, three women are imprisoned (on an average) and deemed “Guilty until proven innocent”?

2) Umpteen numbers of cases have been found where the girls’ side, filing such complaints were found to be hiding vital facts about the girl and they in fact file these cases when the hidden facts(affairs, diseases, unnatural tendencies and preferences, etc.) are exposed. Has 498A been designed to seek revenge from and harass husband’s family legally?

3) Is the pain of a mother / sister less when she loses a son / brother than when she loses a daughter / sister?

4) As per suicide statistics provided by National Crime Records Bureau, for the years 2005 and 2006, close to 52, 483 and 55, 452 married men, respectively, have committed suicide as opposed to 28, 188 and 29, 869 married women. But yet there is no law to protect our brothers and sons. Why?

5) According to a report by Center for Social Research, there is only 2 % conviction in 498a cases, which means the law is misused to the tune of 98 % and yet it has not been scrapped. This clearly shows the inaction of the government and the apathy meted out to men and their family members, be it a man or a woman in India.

Today on Women’s Rights Equality Day we demand that,

1) Mothers and sisters of men too are given equal status and their grievances as women are also heard and redressed by State Women Commissions as well as National Commission for Women and the Women and Child Development Ministry.

2) We demand that all cases registered under 498A be properly investigated by a police officer of the level of DCP before making any arrests or registering any complaint the police has written permission from the DCP- in compliance with 1994 Supreme Court Judgment 1994 AIR 1349 SCC (4) 260 Joginder Kumar vs. UOI. It is to be understood that 498a is a serious criminal offense and registering a criminal offense against any person without investigation can lead to serious degradation of the person’s social reputation and irreparable damage to life and career, apart from unfathomable human rights violation and wastage of governmental resources and hence public’s money.

3) Such acts need strong condemnation and the perpetrators of false cases need to be severely punished as they are maligning the system and blocking the path of justice for genuine victims. The State should initiate prosecution suo motu against those found to be misusing laws affecting families.

Gender Equality cannot come by way of Gender Discrimination and stereotyped, anachronous and generalised assumptions, which can only help to undermine the spirit and definition of any law. Taking the statements of the girl’s side as “Gospel Truth” reflects sheer lack of jurisprudence and grave inefficiency in implementation of laws on the government’s part, which needs to be rectified with immediate effect.

Place: Thanking You

Date: 26 August 2008

PRO (Save Indian Family Foundation)

Women Protection vs. Women Empowerment

2008-08-06T10:33:00.001+05:30

Alimony in divorces is a serious issue these days. Huge alimonies have stripped men of their finances in the West and this trend is slowly catching in India as well with the growing number of divorces. Recent studies in Mumbai showed that 40 % of marriages end in divorce. In Delhi, every day on an average 10 divorce cases are filed. And in majority of these cases men are ordered to pay alimony as they say alimony in divorce is a positive step towards “Women Empowerment” by making them financially independent. But alimony as a provision in divorce is despicable and subject to serious condemnation for many reasons underlined here,

1) Arranged Marriage in India is a communal decision and takes place as a result of the involvement of society elders, common friends and the parents of both the boy and the girl. Hence when the relation fails to work and ends in a divorce, the husband should not be the only one paying.

2) If it is a love marriage then both the adults are equally responsible and the man should not be the only one paying the price.

3) Alimony is the biggest motivator for women to file a divorce and stop making attempts to save the marriage. Also parents of girls, when they see the marriage is not working, encourage their daughters to move towards divorce in lieu of hefty alimony.

4) Due to the overwhelming and impending burden of alimony, married men in India continue to suffer in a bad marriage and refrain from buying a costly piece of paper called, ‘Divorce’ which results in higher stress levels for men and also higher suicide rates among Indian married men.

In line with the feminism that created waves in the 70s in the West, harsh, lopsided and severely anti – male laws were drafted in India in the name of Women Protection. And at the same time alimony was encouraged in the name of Women Empowerment. Today we have six laws quintessentially achieving the same objective of Women Protection and Women Empowerment in tandem.

But the basic ideology where the law makers, the society living with those laws and the media sleeping in deep slumber, not to protest against the loopholes in the laws and their implementation, fluttered is that, Protection and Empowerment can never go hand in hand. We don’t need to protect an empowered lot, hence when alimony was already provided for Women Empowerment, Women Protection was a redundancy. And if that was not the case then alimony as a means to Empower Women has failed miserably and has rather proved as a “Marriage Breaker” as reflected in a recent statement by renowned Supreme Court justice Arijit Pasayath that the Hindu Marriage Act has broken more families than joining them.

The statements seems more than apt. Though Hindu Marriage Act has provisions for saving as well breaking marriage, the one breaking marriage is more famous i.e. divorce. The section for saving marriage, Section 9 – Restitution of Conjugal Rights is a dead letter section of the Hindu Marriage Act which quintessentially trivializes the Indian culture of saving marriage, but sadly enough it is not only a lesser known section, it is non – executable as well, which means the court cannot enforce an order passed in this section.

Due to such reasons divorces are increasing day by day and the institution of marriage is slowly dying out. The government which barely manages to gather oxygen enough to survive in wake of recent turmoil and power tussle at the center has little / no time to look into this matter, impending over the society as a social catastrophe. The society, whose very existence is subject to strict proof with everyone in the society considering everyone else other than oneself as the society, with its paradoxical veil of technological advancement conveniently, chooses to ignore the victims of a bad marriage. The media, whose hunger for sensationalism is self – feeding, considers only the women as humans, raising its voice for women at every sneeze and whiff, is simply catalyzing a gender divide in the society and nothing else.

In view of the all the above contentions and discussions, yet it remains a question, whether Empowerment and Protection can go hand in hand? Let the stalwarts answer this.

Marriage - The other side of the coin

2008-07-26T22:17:00.000+05:30

Marital problems have started contributing to stress in a very big way. Day in and day out we hear people succumbing to marital problems with the growing numbers of suicides among married people especially males. As per suicide statistics provided by National Crime Records Bureau, for the years 2005 and 2006, close to 52, 000 and 56, 000 married men committed suicide respectively. And the same years noted a splurge in the number of dowry harassment cases filed as reflected in the number of such cases filed – 58319 and 63128. Coupled with that, if a study conducted by Center for Social Research on the conviction rate of such cases is anything to go by, it shockingly reveals that there is only 2 % conviction in such cases. This means 98 % of such cases are false, and thus a false claim of dowry harassment was made.

Not only that, based on that false statement, the husband and his entire family was arrested, put behind bars, made to cough out huge amounts to get a bail and had no choice but to fight a legal battle in an otherwise defunct and dead judicial outreach and was also subjected to malicious prosecution. For the charge of dowry harassment being false, the concocted stories of alleged torture would also bear no ground. Having thus said, section 498A IPC, being heavily misused has actually turned out into an assassin’s weapon rather a protector’s shield as rightly pointed out by the Honorable Supreme Court of India. Instead of making families, it is breaking families, for any woman who has falsely implicated her husband and in – laws in a false criminal case has lost their trust and the marriage has been dead for all practical purposes.

A recent study in Mumbai claimed 40 % of marriages registered in Mumbai end in a divorce. And most of such cases involve filing of a false dowry case in order to get a quick divorce with a hefty alimony. Unscrupulous girls, supported by ill – minded parents, especially mother, pampered by a biased legal system who is highly de – sensitized to husbands (read married men) have found this as a very easy way to earn tax – free money. And to add to that all of those so called marriages have been performed on some auspicious date / time in consultation with some purohit / pundit etc.

When marriages could last so strongly for ages down the memory lane, and those too were conducted on some auspicious date / time in consultation with some purohit / pundit etc., what has changed so drastically in recent times that marriages have become a source of business opportunity for women and a source of ignominy and stress for men? Save Indian Family Foundation, the single largest NGO committed to the cause of spreading the message of Gender Equity and Family Harmony in addition to providing free legal, moral and psychological support to the victims of false dowry harassment and Domestic Violence cases, receives on an average of 200 calls a week over its various help lines spread all over India and abroad as well from battered and harassed men who are either victims of the misuse of these laws or are subjected to Domestic Violence at the hands of their wives.

Have we come of the time to consult a lawyer rather than a pundit or a purohit to decide a marital knot? Especially a male does need to do so before tying the knot. For if the marriage does not work (which is quite possible in today’s dynamic socio – economic scenario), he will have to bear the brunt of the fallacy. A false case lodged with the help of the corrupt police force, sleeping judiciary and mercenary lawyers robs the man of his health, wealth, life, career and happiness. Even with a low conviction rate, the mental trauma that the man and his family including his mother and sisters and his father and other relatives undergo cannot be described in words and is by no means less than actual conviction.

But does life end there? Is the end of marriage, the end of life? Perhaps yes, but probably no. Looking at the alarmingly high and surprisingly suppressed suicide statistics of married males as mentioned in the first paragraph, it is probably true that for married males, end of marriage is end of life. But seeing the spirits of a few thousand volunteers at Save Indian Family Foundation, reality shifts. Here people have not only gathered strength to fight against the system and stride against the tide, but have also developed high amount of positivity in their life and learned to remain happy despite a despicable and pathetic married life.

Marriage can definitely be the first step towards family foundation but cannot substitute life itself. Life is too big and diverse and there are many things to be done in life than to waste it in crying over the split milk called a bad marriage. Like the volunteers at Save Indian Family Foundation has taken cudgels against not only the biased laws and their faulty implementation but also against the mindset that a woman will not break away from a marriage without justifiable reason. This is a bitter truth which the society needs to know, imbibe and live with it, till the time it refuses to change itself.

Sex in the boardroom!- Can a female actually exploit a man?

2008-07-09T11:56:00.000+05:30

Sex in the boardroom!
9 Jul 2008, 0055 hrs IST, PALLAVI TYAGI

“When a man talks dirty to a woman, its sexual harassment. When a woman talks dirty to a man, it's $3.95 per minute”

The famous Steven Wright quote seems to be quite paradoxical, especially in the light of a recent Australian survey. According to the survey, it’s not only women who face sexual harassment at work places; men also have to go through the unwanted office vixenry. Remember Michael Douglas in Disclosure or Akshay Kumar in the desi version Aitraaz? The study also states that many men are sexually harassed by women at work but are afraid to complain to their bosses. And even if they complain about their bosses, they are more likely to be told they are actually lucky to be ogled and hassled!

This couldn’t be closer to the truth, at least where India Inc is concerned. We spoke to a cross-section of people on the issue and the reactions were, well, surprising, to say the least! Read on...

What’s going on in that cubicle?

“Yes. I agree that sex has entered the boardroom big time. Males are actually facing sexual pestering by female bosses and colleagues.” says ex. lieutenant Rita Gangwani, carefully avoiding the words harassment and exploitation.

“Since time immemorial, man has been the ruler and female just a follower. But with changing times, the new age women are getting much empowered. They are rubbing shoulders with men and doing much better in most of the fields. So, such sexual advances can be about flaunting, exercising power and not actually about sex, “she further exemplifies.

Supports producer of a leading sports channel, “Behind the scenes of every male life, there are instances (though very few) when they come across such a boss. But, to be very honest, if it exists then it’s a win-win situation for him.”

For most people, however, sexual harassment of a man by a woman is inane, to say the least. “A hidden world of sexual harassment, with female managers exploiting their power over men in the office, seems very unreal. See, especially in the desi context, sex is a very hush-hush thing and not something easily available. So, in such situation even if a man gets such a proposition, he can just not mind it. This stands true even if he doesn’t get any materialistic favours from his female boss in return. Where is the issue?” questions COO of a renowned Internet-solution company.

Pallavi Shekhar, sales manager, Idea Cellular Ltd, shares a similar opinion, “We all know how grapevines work at workplace. She would gain instant fame in and out the office. Why would a female herself opt for a situation in which everyone in the office and even in the industry think of her as a bimbo? No matter how modern a woman is - image matters a lot.”

Can a female actually exploit a man?

“Not really,” says Rita Gangwani, making us understand why she avoided the word harassment, “I would call it sexual convenience for both. A female at a top notch position might be looking for some emotional backing. Women get emotionally involved the minute they enter a physical alliance; for them, ‘No-strings-attached’ also comes with a thin, white strand. In such cases, women get the much needed emotional refuge, flattering compliments and a dedicated escort and men get promotions/raises along with casual sex. It’s just a pact.”

“If there is Sex & Sum (money) then it will be total 'advantage men’. The reason for this is that sex is not open in our country,” asserts the sports channel producer.

So, does that mean men see such proposals as just another opportunity to carve a notch on the bedpost and get some “perks”? When, Pratish Aggrawal, a software developer working with Infosys, was asked if he has ever been harassed a female boss, colleague, he replied, "No, but I'd like to be”. Oops point taken! However, Pratish is quick to cover up, “Look men are not that sensitive. They do not consider mockery, sexual jokes, and lewd suggestions from female co-workers as harassment. Also, we have been taught from childhood that real men aren't victims – so we can surely find a way out.”

According to psychologist Dr Sanjay Chugh: “Men usually are more causal about sex but that has nothing to do with exploitation. A female boss asking for sexual favours may be a pleasant thing if the man finds that sex is worth the gain that he might get, or if he finds the boss sexually attractive. But if one doesn’t find the boss attractive, if one's value systems are different, it can be pure torture to even contemplate such a proposition. Sex with anyone can be casual and fun if it comes out of free choice. In this situation, it no longer remains casual.”

Legally speaking!

ACP Sanjay Tyagi says that in his entire carrier span he hasn’t “even heard of” any case wherein a male has registered a FIR against a female colleague or boss for sexual assault.

Anukul Raj, advocate, Supreme Court, explains, “There are no detailed and specific laws to deal with male harassment. We just have sections like Section 377 and Section 375 that deal with offence like sodomy and forced sexual acts.”

Highlighting the prejudice a male may face in harassment cases, he says: “In case a woman complains of a sexual assault, her word of mouth is considered as the proof and the onus of establishing that the convict is innocent is on the defense. However, if a male makes such a complaint, the onus of proving the assault is on the prosecution.” The lawyer further adds that he hasn’t heard of or fought any such case yet.

Exploring the reason for inhibitions on the part of a male sufferer, Dr Chugh explains, “We have to understand here that for a male it can be very difficult to come up with such a complaint because of the shame or embarrassment associated with it (just as it would be tough for a female). What makes it more difficult is the mindset (result of years of conditioning) that man is superior and more powerful. Men are still getting used to having women as bosses...accepting that they are sexually dominant too is something more difficult.”

pallavi.tyagi@indiatimes.co.in

TN women cops use third degree to solve wedding woes

2008-07-08T23:04:00.000+05:30

TN women cops use third degree to solve wedding woes
Press Trust Of India
Published on Tue, Jul 08, 2008 at 15:00 in Nation section

Chennai: Amid allegations that officers of all women police stations in Tamil Nadu were resorting to third-degree methods during inquiries on matrimonial disputes, Madras High Court has ordered that the local police officials should obtain permission from SP to effect arrests and set guidelines to be followed in such cases.

Justice R Regupathi, hearing a petition submitted by a person on Monday that he was violently beaten up by a woman police officer in connection with a matrimonial case, observed that "every one expected that all women police stations would be conciliation centres for re-union. But the actual experience divulged that even minor disputes due to family misunderstandings are given colour of a crime."

He said "in fact helpless women are encouraged to come forward with a case with grave allegations against the husband and his family, invariably dragging all family members to police station and subjecting them to ignominy and disgrace."

"There are some instances where arrests are strategically planned to harass the accused and his family so as to make the succumb to the horror of being imprisoned. Such arrests are in ariably plotted at the weekend particularly on Fridays so that they cannot even apply for bail for next two days," he said.

The Judge added "there were many reports of married sisters of husbands, even though they are pregnant or with baby in hands, are summoned and brought to the stations in the name for inquiry and ruthlessly harassed."

Justice Regupathi suggested that except in cases of dowry death, suicide and offences of serious nature, the station house officers of All Women Police Stations should register FIR only on approval of the Dowry Prohibition Officer (DPO) concerned.

The Judge said social workers or mediators with experience may be nominated and housed in the same premises of All Women Police Stations along with the DPOs.

Arrest in matrimonial disputes, in particular arrest of aged, infirm, sick persons and minors, shall not be made by the Station House Officers, the Judge said adding that if arrest was necessary during investigation, sanction must be obtained from the Superintendent of Police concerned by forwarding the reasons recorded in writing.

The chargesheet must be filed within a period of 30 days from the date of registration of the FIR and in case of failure, extension of time shall be sought from the jurisdiction magistrate indicating the reasons for the delay.

A different uniform other than the one for regular police force may be recommended for these police officers, the Judge added.

Men wail on Renuka’s shoulders

2008-06-21T10:22:00.000+05:30

Men wail on Renuka’s shoulders
CHARU SUDAN KASTURI

Renuka Chowdhary
New Delhi, June 20: Women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhary has called a first-of-its-kind-meeting with male activists demanding modifications to laws that they claim are flawed and biased against men.

Top ministry officials said they do not expect Chowdhary to yield to the demand from male groups for “gender-equal” laws, though some of their proposals may be considered. Instead, the minister could use the forum to try and explain to men “the need for laws favouring women”.
The groups argue that the laws against dowry and domestic violence against women as well as the proposed “sexual harassment at the workplace” legislation are discriminatory against men and open to misuse.

The meeting, scheduled for June 25, will be held at the India Islamic Cultural Centre in Delhi. Over a hundred male activists have been invited, ministry sources said.

In the past seven months, the ministry has thrice drawn up plans to organise the meeting, but these were cancelled by Chowdhary. Though the official reason given was that unplanned commitments had cropped up, sources close to the minister said she wanted to be “fully prepared” with legal advice.

“Now that the minister is ready, we are hosting the meeting at a public location where the media will be allowed, because we have nothing to shy away from,” an official said.

Swarup Sarkar, the co-ordinator of Save Family Foundation, an umbrella group of men’s organisations that works in cohesion with similar groups abroad, said he had not received an invite.

“This is a landmark meeting, and the minister, on earlier occasions, had promised us she would invite us. An official from the ministry has informed us about the meeting, but we have not received any official invitation,” he said.

An office-bearer of Rakshak Foundation — a group of NRI men from across the world campaigning against India’s dowry law — said they had not received an invitation either.
The concept note for the June 25 meet lists some of the key changes that the men’s groups want. The words “woman” and “man” should be replaced with “person” in the proposed law against harassment at work. Similarly, “victim” and “accused” should replace “wife” and “husband” in the domestic violence law, they have demanded.

The anti-dowry law is frequently misused, the men say. At present, it is mandatory for police to arrest all the accused named by the woman or her family before even starting investigations. The men’s groups want either prima facie evidence to be made necessary for any arrests or a provision to punish the complainant if the charges are found mala fide.

Hindu Marriages Act breaking more homes than uniting: SC

2008-06-17T23:58:00.000+05:30

Hindu Marriages Act breaking more homes than uniting: SC
17 Jun 2008, 1825 hrs IST,PTI

NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over an increasing number of divorce cases flooding the courts, the Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that the Hindu Marriages Act had done more harm to the family system in the country than strengthening it.

"The Hindu Marriages Act has broken more homes than uniting," a vacation Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and G S Singhvi observed.

The apex court regretted that the growing number of divorce cases in the country was having a disastrous effect on children of families which get broken in such a manner.

Enacted in 1955, the Hindu Marriages Act which had undergone several amendments till 2003 contains various provisions for validity of a Hindu marriage, restitution of conjugal rights and divorce, the latter being a concept evolved from the English law.

"Even at the time of marriages, anticipatory divorce petitions are being filed," the Bench remarked sarcastically.

The apex court passed the observation while dealing with a petition filed by a divorcee for seeking his child's custody.

"Ego should get dissolved for the sake of the child," the Bench remarked even as the separated parents tried to air their views.

The apex court told the separated couple that it was more concerned with the welfare of the child, rather than the mutual recrimination between the two.

"Ultimately the child suffers. If it is a girl the trauma is more, particularly at the time of the marriage of such children," Justice Pasayat speaking for the Bench observed.

The apex court lamented that the provisions provided in the Hindu Marriages Act for granting divorce on the grounds of spouses suffering from diseases like leprosy, mental illness were being misused by some couples.

"In those days our forefathers never had such problems," the apex court observed while stating that marital disputes during the olden days were sorted out within the four walls of the house.

In this case, Gaurav Nagpal through counsel Manik Karanjawala had sought custody of his 11-year old son.

Nagpal had filed the appeal after the trial court and the Delhi High Court had both granted the custody of the boy to his estranged wife Sumedha Nagpal.

There was high drama during the hearing of the case when Gaurav asked his wife to give him an hour time to sort out certain differences between.

But even before the court could give its views on the plea, Sumedha bluntly rejected the idea.

"It's just an eyewash your Lordship. He has been beating me and my father," Sumedha told the Bench, which however, said that it would not go into the merits of the case at this juncture.

Instead, the Bench said it would personally talk to the couple in chamber during the afternoon.

The matter was also listed for further hearing on Wednesday.

Just putting sindoor not enough, go the whole hog to be legally wed, rules court

2008-06-14T12:19:00.000+05:30

Utkarsh AnandPosted online: Saturday , June 07, 2008 at 11:00:30Updated: Saturday , June 07, 2008 at 11:00:30
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New Delhi, June 6 Simply putting ‘sindoor’ (vermillion) on a woman’s head might work as ‘proof’ of a quick-fix wedding for Bollywood potboilers, but the law does not grant sanctity to such a “marriage”, a city court has observed.

According to Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Bimla Kumari, the other nuts and bolts of wedding, as laid down in the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA), have to be followed for the matrimony to get legal sanction.

“Merely putting sindoor in the parting of a girl does not give a title to a man to be (her) husband,” ASJ Kumari ruled in a recent case. “For a marriage, the ‘saptapadi ceremony’ has to be performed under the Hindu Marriage Act.”

The Act, the legislation of laws relating to marriages among Hindus, says that a wedding is “complete” only after the customary rites and ceremonies, including the “saptapadi” (seven steps taken by groom and bride in front of the sacred fire). The court observed that the marriage becomes “complete and binding” only after the seventh step is taken.

The court’s observation came while deciding a case against a man accused of kidnapping a girl to Uttarakhand and raping her.

As the woman — she was found to be over 18 years, and thus of marriageable age — stood by the accused, the court acquitted him of abduction charges. But when ASJ Kumari was to settle on the rape charge, the woman told the judge that he had applied “sindoor” on her forehead in March last with intention to get married. “We made God the witness of our relationship,” the woman contended.

The court acquitted the man of rape charge, as the woman was mature and legally capable of consenting to physical relationship, but refused to acknowledge the wedding. Noting that the girl had admitted that barring the sindoor bit no wedding rituals were performed, ASJ Kumari said they could not be lawfully married under the Hindu Marriage Act. “For a marriage, the ‘saptapadi ceremony’ has to be performed, which is not performed in the present case,” the court observed, while releasing the accused. “It means they were not legally wedded.”

Children's Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP)

2008-06-11T18:51:00.001+05:30

Rally demanding Children’s Right on 14th June 2008
http://www.citizens4crisp.org/
Contact: 98452 64488, 93428 53272, 9243473794

PRESS RELEASE

On Saturday, 14th June 2008, Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP) protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi Statue, MG Road demanding the children rights. People from all walks of life including Software engineers, Doctors, NRI’s and Businessmen will participate in this protest.

CRISP is a Non Governmental Organization(NGO) founded recently by a group of citizens, who recognize the serious effects of “parental alienation” on children due to single parent families on account of divorce or separation. CRISP also focuses on furthering the rights of a children to remain connected with both parents. While most NGOs pertaining to children deal with issues related to child labour, education etc we deal with issues related to unquestionable right of children to be cared for by both biological parents.

Our aims and objectives are based on research findings worldwide which indicate that children do best when both parents are actively involved in their lives, even after separation or divorce. We believe that conflict between parents will get reduced and the mental and emotional health of children will improve, when divorcing parents can be assured of equal and meaningful contact with their children with mutual cooperation.

According to CRISP, Parents contemplating divorce should be given manadatory counselling on “shared parenting” and the benefits there of by a panel of experts supervised by the family court. This will eliminate unnecessary child custody battles and stress to the parents and the child and also wasting of precious time of the courts.

Parental alienation occurs, when one parent disallows the other parent from communicating with their children for personal vendetta. The dominant parent then brainwashes the child against the other parent, assuring the child that it is all right to ignore the other parent.” This brings a lot mental distress and trauma to the child and the alienated parent.

Indian legal system is still based on patriarchal mindset, which considers fathers as not capable of nurturing the children. However, today many fathers are competent of taking care of the needs of the children for normal upbringing. When women can multitask by going to work after domestic chores and also take care of children, it is baseless to say that men/fathers are not capable of taking care of children. With rise in number of working parents in nuclear family setup, father’s involvement in raising the children is a must. Otherwise, the child is simply left at the mercy of servants and strangers in day care centers and exposed to all sorts of child abuse.

The mindsets in Indian legal system has to change by taking account of the current social situation. Shared parenting is recognised in many western countries.

CRISP demands an Early Intervention Project where divorcing parents would have to meet with a panel of experts to clarify issues such as custody, finance, education and children’s upbringing before proceeding with the divorce decree.

“Studies have shown that children who go through their parents’ divorce have

more conduct problems,
symptoms of psychological maladjustment,
lower academic achievement,
social difficulties and problematic relationships with both parents.

To make matters worse, many parents often influence their children to choose one parent over the other and this is often traumatic for the child and this cruelty on the children has to be stopped immediately.

Strengthen Fatherhood and Families: Since 1960, the number of American children without fathers in their lives has quadrupled, from 6 million to more than 24 million. Children without fathers in their lives are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime, nine times more likely to drop out of school, and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. As the proverb goes,“One father is better than 100 teachers.”

In United States of America, Statistics reported tells that Children from fatherless homes are:

5 times more likely to commit suicide
32 times more likely to run away from home.
20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders
14 times more likely to commit rape.
9 times more likely to drop out of high school.
10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances (become drug addicts)
9 times more likely to end up in a state-operated institution
20 times more likely to end up in prison.
3 million teenage girls have sexually transmitted diseases

At least 1 out of 4 teenagers (between 14years to 19years) suffers from sexually transmitted diseases.
It is important for all citizens of the nation to wake up to stop a future social catastrophe as it has happened in western countries. We have to learn from the social experiments in America and Europe and stop repeating the mistakes western countries did in last 30 years. Today, billions of dollars are spent in those countries to tackle the behavioural problems. In fact, this is a major issue in most election campaigns in those countries as billions are spent on it. If a child is denied care of father as at present and if India becomes a fatherless society, then it will simply create more criminals, rapists and drug addicts in next 15 years (as shown in the statistics above). The entire social fabric and culture will be in ruins and the damage will be irreversible to our society. So, CRISP members want to stop this social catastrophe and save the future generations from narrow mindsets.

CRISP is dedicated in putting efforts to the creation of a judicial system, legislative system, and public awareness, which promotes equal rights for ALL parties affected by divorce and the breakup of a family keeping in mind the best interests of the child.

As custody battles between parents increase, counselling of separating or divorced parents can have a positive effect on the overall development of the child.

CRISP wants to highlight:

That joint custody is the best outcome for children whose parents are separated. Child needs the support of both biological parents. Both biological parents should be responsible for the emotional and psychological well-being of their children.

That “Interparental Child Abduction” is Child Abuse. Often one parent takes the child to another country without the permission of the other parents or the courts. It is known as parental abduction and is a criminal act under international laws including Hague Convention.

That the practice of alienating the child from the other parent is Child Abuse.

That grandparents should have rights and access to their grandchildren.

That gender bias should be eliminated from family law and from future legislation.

That parties should resist from using gender biased laws to wreak vengeance on the non-custodial parent.

Demands by CRISP - Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting:

Ensuring meaningful and balanced participation of both parents in the lives of children in case of separation of the parents.
Single mothers should be given mandatory counselling to increase involvement of biological father in the child’s life.
Existing visitation schedules to increase and enhance the role of “non-custodial parents” in the best interest of the child.
Reforms in the existing child custody laws, practices for equal parenting sensitised to consider child’s ne.
50% of the custody to be given to the fathers.
Govt must allocate funds for conducting research on the adverse impact on fatherless children.
Creating a Ministry for children by separating the existing Women and Child (WCD) ministry. A separate union minister for children must be appointed.
On 14th June, CRISP activists from various parts of India will conduct a massive protest in front of Gandhi Statue, on MG Road Bangalore. The time of the protest is from 10:00am till 1:00pm. About 150 to 200 men, women, elders and children are expected to participate in the protest. There are 30 to 40 men and women traveling from Hyderabad, Chennai and other parts of South India to participate in this protest. Most of them are scientists, NRIs, Software Engineers, Doctors and Business persons. The protests will be held every month in different parts of India till Indian parliament amends the laws to Save Indian Children and prevent social catastroph in future.

To the WCD Ministry

2008-06-04T17:59:00.000+05:30

Honorable Ministers,

As a citizen of India, I seek an answer to the following questions:-

As per NCRB data every year, 56000 married men are committing suicide every year on an average. If a married woman dies, it by default assumed to be a dowry death and the whole family of husbands is thrown in to jail. Whereas for a husband death it is just marked off as another death and no action is taken. So is the value of a man's life any less than a woman's life? Or is it that the pain of a mother / sister losing her son / brother is out of the ambit of the purview of these ministries?
Why is there no clause of punishment for people filing false cases under section 498A and 3 & 4 DP Act and Domestic Violence Act 2005 and 125 CrPC?
Why is section 498A violating the basic principles of Human Rights as laid down by Amnesty International and assumes the accused 'Guilty until proven innocent'?
As per NCRB data, 1, 00,000 innocent women have been arrested under section 498A IPC and Section 3 & 4 DP Act, without any trial, merely on the basis of allegations. What action has your concerned ministry taken in this regard to ensure that the offenders are booked and such actions are not repeated in future?
Day in and day out, we here cases of senior citizens being evicted out of their own dream home, built out of life - savings by their unscrupulous Daughter -in - law. What has your concerned ministry done to redress the grievances of those mothers who lost their home, their abode in their dusky days to the misuse of a system badly implemented?
DV Act is termed Ultra - Vires the Constitution of India as it advocates conviction of a person on sole testimony of complainants and violating Article 13 of the Indian Constitution which says, "All citizens are equal in the eyes of law". So has your concerned ministry taken steps to redress the same loophole? If not, why so? And if there are any plans, when so?

Is it a man's world?

2008-06-03T11:20:00.000+05:30

They say it is a man’s world. I disagree. Since childhood men are discriminated against and made to believe that in order to remain happy in this world they have to please the women around, be it their mother, sister, cousins, wives or girlfriends. All histrionics are women – centric and driven by their moods.

If a woman breaks away from a relationship, she is considered liberated and her action is deemed heroic and hailed by one and all, but the same thing done by a man draws only flak. A man does not even get the consideration that he too might be suffering in the relationship and needed a breakthrough, a benefit of doubt women enjoy ubiquitously and as a de – facto privilege. As far as the woman wants to carry on in the relationship, the man is expected to compromise and make the relation work and when she does not want to do the same, allegations are transferred to the man who has to take the blame of the failed relationship and compensate for the same as well and they call it a man’s world.

If a man breaks away from the relationship, the woman is considered a deserted victim and if a woman deserts a man then also the woman is considered as the liberated victim. If a man continues in an abusive relationship he is called an emotional fool and if a woman continues her commitment is lauded and they call it a man’s world.

If a woman looks for a rich and wealthy man she is considered ambitious and concerned for her future. If a man looks out for a wealthy wife, he is termed greedy. If a man shows slyness towards getting married, he is non – social, non – committal and loose – focused in life, but if a woman does the same she is thinking about her life and career. If a woman passes some lewd comments to a man, she is sportive and courageous, but the same thing done by a man becomes a crime attracting strict penalties and they call it a man’s world.

In the olden days girls were shy to speak of their own feelings and it was considered bad to approach women for relationships and we had laws formulated to protect women and it was called the era of women protection. Slowly women became more outspoken and expressed their feelings more vocally and when they felt like ending relationships and started misusing the same laws meant to protect them, we have now what we are witnessing as Women Empowerment. So where do we see a man’s voice or a say in this?

Earlier when men used to initiate divorces, DIVORCE was considered a bad word and a social taboo. Women were provided protection in the form of alimony and maintenance. Seeing it as an easy route to tax – free money, women started initiating divorces leveling false allegations and DIVORCE is no longer considered a bad word!!! If a man is not willing to divorce his wife, he is said to have caused mental torture to the wife by denying divorce, but if a woman refuses to divorce her husband, she is said to have made attempts to save the marriage and they call it a man’s world.

If a married woman dies, the whole family of the husband is put behind bars and denied bail. They are marked off as criminals and booked under IPC Section 304 B (Dowry Death). If a married man dies, the woman is hailed as the victim and gets everyone’s sympathy. Why is the consideration not given to the possibility of the involvement of his wife in his death, when her death is viewed with an assumption of dowry related torture? Even if there are evidences in favor of the man accused, the same are ignored and he is tried for baseless trial and they call it a man’s world.

Men do the most risky jobs in the society, pay 82 % of taxes in India and yet neither do they have a National Commission of Men to redress their grievances nor a Welfare Ministry to look after them. Even we have animal welfare ministries but not one for men. Men are discriminated against in paying taxes as well, for women have additional tax concessions. Every year 1200 crore Rupees and this year 7200 crore Rupees have been allocated to the women ministry. Of this 82 % is paid by men and the same money is used to frame heavily lopsided laws to frame the same men and defame them and abuse them financially and they call it a man’s world.

Even the media is highly sensitized to women’s issues. A complaint of dowry harassment is lodged and the next day, leading dailies carry the news and print it as if the reporters were staying with the couple and put allegations on the man and his family. But for a man’s case either no coverage is given, or some justification is provided to compensate the wrong – doing happening to the man and they call it a man’s world.

Men are mass brainwashed with this euphoria that it a man’s world and so men need to protect women and in this process all that a man does is viewed with suspicion. It is high time we give a second thought to the thought, “Is it really a man’s world?” And “How difficult is it to be a man?”

Protest in Bangalore on Father's Day - 14th June

2008-06-01T22:17:00.001+05:30

It takes a man & a woman to make a relationship, known as marriage and the most beautiful outcome of such a relationship are children; beautiful, innocent, full of life, sweet, charming and hordes of other adjectives can be ascribed to them. But irony seems to have devoured even this aspect of life. Children of late have become a tool to obtain, maintain, and sustain supremacy and ego feeding in relationships. Whenever a relationship worsens, a tussle starts between the warring errant couples to get a good scorecard from their children and try to retain them. Many a times they are used as a blackmailing weapon. Men are threatened of false cases if they make an attempt to meet their children. In such a war of egos, no-one, including the two individuals who brought them to this world together, ever bother to think about the rights and future of the children themselves.

Errant and vindictive mothers are often successful in getting custody of their children, courtesy staunchly feminist nymphomaniac mindset of the judiciary giving in to crocodile tears and false show of motherhood in courts. This deprives two individuals of their rights, the child and the father. A child is deprived of a father’s love, affection and care and the father is forced to strangulate his fatherhood. The society and the judiciary need to be sensitized about the importance of the presence of both the parents for a child’s normal upbringing and in the best interest of the child’s future. USA has shown us the catastrophic effects of creating Fatherless Children and Childless Fathers. Teenage Pregnancy, Alcohol addiction in adolescence, high inclination to crimes and many other ill – effects have come to forth in the American Society, courtesy feminism taking its toll with its anti – men policy. With draconian laws favoring women irrespective of merits in Indian legal scenario, Indian society is moving at dramatic pace towards self – extinction.

CRISP (Child Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting) an initiative taken under the aegis of Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF) has made its mission to voice the cries of innocent sufferers and sensitize the society about the dire need of both the parents and especially a father in a child’s life. Announcing its launch on 14^th June 2008 at Gandhi Statue on MG Road, near Cubbon Park, CRISP invites people to participate in this noble cause and make an attempt to save the society from a potential and impending catastrophe.

Legal Terrorism at its zenith

2008-05-30T13:01:00.000+05:30

Mr. Gurpal Singh, a resident of Delhi, recently suffered a heavy personal loss in his life, with his father suffering from a heart attack. The reason the old man died an unnatural death was his daughter –in – law threatening to file cases based on false allegations of dowry harassment and related torture. His daughter-in-law had occupied his own house and thrown them out form their own home one year back and subsequently, his father and mother have to make rounds of the court/police to get back their own home, which failed till date. They even had to spend nights at "Gurudwara" in spite of his own home he made for his old time. Unable to bear the burden of a false allegation of a crime as grave as ‘Dowry Harassment’ and the associated stigma and social ostracization, Gurpal’s father succumbed to the pressure.

Every year 70, 000 cases of dowry harassment are filed and if the data compiled by Centre for Social Research is anything to go by, 98 % of such cases are false, void of merit and filed with an adverse motive of extortion, revenge and an intention of settling petty marital discords. In the last four years 95, 000 innocent women have been arrested solely on the base of allegations of dowry harassment, without any trial being ever conducted. When such a case comes to the police station or any so – called women’s organization, the first thing done is to take the whole family into the ambit of suspicion, without verification of the complaint, including small children and senior citizens, and pregnant sisters.

In case a woman dies within seven years of her marriage, the death is viewed with suspicions of dowry related harassment as a de – facto standard and the whole family of the in – laws are thrust into the prison and denied bail. Such fears have risen to such alarmingly high levels in the society that even the mention of such a threat to file a case can drive any person into deep wells of fear and uncertainty. Gurpal’s father also was going through the same mental phase and not being able to take the pressure, suffered from an emotional breakdown and a son lost his father in the most crucial period of his life.

It is highly disheartening to see the pathetic state men and their families are in currently in the society. Living constantly in a fear of false allegations being leveled against them and washing their lives in a whiff of a moment, some commit suicides, some give way to biological irregularities while more others are compelled to give in to unreasonable, unjustified and illogical demands in lieu of not filing a case. Is the value of a man’s life less than the value of a woman’s life, so much so that the society considers taking their lives as ‘Social Service’ and does not feel any need to take some steps to improve conditions. The daughter – in – law of Gurpal’s father is responsible for his sad demise, and charges of abetment of suicide need to be leveled against her and such a blatant misuse of laws deems punishment. Such acts fall no short of Legal Terrorism.

Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF) an NGO committed to the cause of spreading awareness of this ongoing Legal Terrorism in the society and helping its victims, seeks to demand police intervention in Gurpal’s father’s sad demise and book the offenders for the crimes committed. A man’s life is not to be wasted like this making it a price of unleashing Legal Terrorism and such a loss needs to be compensated with timely justice. It would be absolutely mandatory to reiterate here that as per National Crime Records Bureau’s Data, every year close to 75, 000 men end their lives in suicide, more than double the number of women, yet men have no protection from the law. In addition to that they are subjected to wide and blatant false allegations and victimized under highly biased legal system plagued with lopsided laws.

Gender biased and draconian laws formed on the basis of highly bloated statistics are coming under high scathing as increasingly they are becoming tools to exercise unwarranted power and control. To add to it they have become legal channels of tax - free money extortion sponsored from tax payers’ hard earned money. SIFF condemns such laws and urges the government to take drastic and timely steps to avoid a social catastrophe turning a civilized society into a jungle of state sponsored Legal Terrorism snuffing lives out of innocent citizens in the dusky days.

Unfortunately if this had been the Father of a girl, all channel would had flashed the News, an old father ends his life for Dowry harassment and the husband's father/mother/sisters/child would havae been put behind the bars, but cases such as these always go un-reported, resulting in more and more elder people loosing their life silently, which it seems that not only the government authorities our media friends also believe to be considered as *"Social service of India" as the DIL killed the FIL.

`I am relieved' - Prashanth(Tamil Actor & Victim of IPC498a misuse)

2008-05-29T17:38:00.000+05:30

Thursday May 29 2008 09:42 IST

Sharadha Narayanan

MARRIAGE is happiness to others, it's been a disaster to me," Prashanth candidly explained as he broke his silence and discussed the trauma surrounding his 3-year marriage with Grihalakshmi.Two days after the police has submitted its investigation to the Metropolitan Magistrate, Saidapet, that reports of harassment by Prashanth to his wife Grihalakshmi was a `mistake of fact', Prashanth seems a relieved man.

When a scribe asked him how he was doing, I'm fine, only now," he jubilantly said.Accusing Grihalakshmi of staging the wedding to cheat him, Prashanth calls himself the biggest victim of Section 498A, which deals with harassment by husband and his relatives and can lead to upto 3 years' imprisonment and fine."What hurts is that my son will be forced to grow in a broken house, which is why I filed a petition asking for his custody," Prashanth added.

Meanwhile, reading from the petition filed by Grihalakshmi against him, the actor said there were accusations that he forced her father to get him an LCD TV while in Malaysia. "Other things that I've supposed to have made them spend includes hair pruning equipment and hair dressing," he said, almost with a smile.

With this police report coming in his favour, things certainly seem to be looking up for the actor. When he was asked if he would accept her if she came back to him, the actor, in a non-committal way, stated that he had waited for too long for a positive response from her. The actor now has two cases that he has filed, pending: one in the matrimonial court seeking to declare the marriage null and void, and one in the criminal court accusing Grihalakshmi of cheating.

Meanwhile, things are also going in his favour in terms of his Kollywood commitments. The actor has six projects waiting to begin and he is awaiting the release of his Pulan Visaranai II this month. Three of his future projects will be under his home banner; one including the remake of his father's yesteryear hit Malaiyoor Mambattiyaan. One other project in the discussion stage is by new director Saroj. The Tamil actor who first got to act with Aishwarya Rai, Rinkie Khanna and many such heroines is eyeing Shriya for that project. "It's almost confirmed," he says.

Prashanth - Meets The Press - Video(Courtesy: Galatta.com)

Prashanth: False dowry harassment case dismissed

2008-05-29T17:32:00.000+05:30

Padma Iyer [May 28, 2008, 1:19:02 PM] . Courtesy: http://tamil.galatta.com

Police investigation has revealed that the dowry harassment case filed by Gruhalakshmi on Prashanth is false. Gruhalakshmi and her family members plotted an extortion scheme to get a whopping amount of Rs. 50 crores from Prashanth. They even threatened to file Section 498 A case against him and his family if he failed to comply with their demand of the huge amount. After a detailed investigation, the police of dowry cell, Chennai, found her case baseless and false and dropped the case against Prashanth and his family.

My case is a classic example of how 498 A IPC is misused- Prashant

2008-05-29T17:24:00.000+05:30

Actor breathes easy

On May 23, the Saidapet Court, acquitted actor Prashanth of all charges filed against him by his wife Grihalakshmi, who according to the police had misrepresented facts and accused him of dowry harassment case.

Breaking his three-year-long silence on the issue, Prashanth said, “My case is a classic example of how Section 498 A of the IPC, which protects women against dowry harassment has been misused (by my wife Grihalakshmi). The actor, who was accompanied by his lawyer P.Anand said, “Despite her giving false testimonies to the media and tarnishing my image, I never reacted against her as she was going to bear my child at that time. To my shock, she was already married to someone else. I sourced all documents to substantiate this and I did not go to the media. Instead, I resorted to the law in which I have immense faith.” When asked about his son, the actor said, “I want him back. I have filed a petition with regard to this and I am going to fight for him.”

Article in Sakal Times- FIGHTING SPIRIT - 56-year-old joins law school

2008-05-22T14:19:00.001+05:30

To Fight cases to save men and families troubled by scheming wives
Mumbai:

While other men of his age eagerly anticipate the retirement years or enjoy the company of their families, Mohanlal Gupta (56) pores over piles of heavy law books. The former IITian is not studying to add to his skills, but out of a humane necessity to save men and families troubled by scheming wives.

“I am the oldest student in the Siddharth Law College, even older than the principal by 15 days,” laughs Gupta, who spearheads the Mumbai chapter of the Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), which has been helping men who are at the receiving end of the deadly Section 498 (A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) since 2005.

However, Gupta’s merriment disappears when he explains, why he gave up his booming consultancy practice and took up studying law.

“My only son was, and continues to be a victim of the extortionist element ingrained in Section 498 (A),” he says. “His wife left him after just three months of marriage, then demanded monthly maintenance from him. We paid her for 15 months till my son finished his studies then he filed for divorce. When she realised that he would not meet any more demands, she alleged harassment,” he added. The Section 498 (A) deals with ‘husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty’. The case is still on at Mulund court, and Gupta vows that once his studies are over, he will fight his son’s case and put the woman behind bars.

“There are scores of men out there, all like my son, who have horrific tales to tell. When I heard their stories, I decided to fight such cases free of cost once I became a lawyer,” he says. The SIFF members in Mumbai are also part of the Protect Indian Family Foundation (PIFF), which operates three helplines in Mumbai.

There are over 5,000 active SIFF members in the country today, with over 175 in Mumbai.
“We are handling 100 new calls per month and will start more helplines to serve every needy person,” says Gupta.

Apart from PIFF taking a rally to Bandra Family court in June, the movement is set to hit TV screens as well. “We are registered with Indian Motion Pictures Association (IMPA) and are working on a tele-serial dealing with husbands’ harassment by misusing the laws,” Gupta says.
Gupta can be contacted on 09869323538 and another SIFF member, P R Gokul, on 09821414336. Nationwide helpline numbers are available on www.saveindianfamily.org.
EMAIL
bureaus@sakaaltimes.com
URL
http://www.saveindianfamily.org

Report in Indian Express- "In a legal Mess"

2008-05-13T10:49:00.002+05:30

In a legal mess
Saturday May 10 2008 20:03 IST

CHENNAI

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s call for the setting up of family courts in every district of the country has evoked mixed reactions in Tamil Nadu with some housewives urging the government to focus on the more important issues such as the steep hike in prices, on the one hand, and lawyers, on the other, terming the call timely and welcome.

“You allow more TASMAC shops, which are the root cause of marital discord and then you suggest more family courts be set up,” says Lakshmi, a middle-aged mother of two from Mylapore who faces torment at the hands of her husband, a regular drinker.

“Improve the functioning of the existing courts,” urges Gomathi of Royapuram, who visits the court in the city to get the maintenance her divorced husband is to give her.

There are six family courts in Tamil Nadu — three in Chennai, and one each in Madurai, Coimbatore and Salem. The government has agreed to establish more such courts in the state. The three courts in Chennai have the necessary infrastructure. There are separate rooms for counselling estranged couples. Two psychiatrics regularly visit the courts. There is also a children’s centre to look after the little ones while parents are in court.

Advocate Arul Mozhi says that the subordinate courts in the districts are already over-burdened with criminal and civil cases and the judges don’t have the time, temperament, patience, or expertise to deal with matrimonial cases.

“There is a feeling that family courts are set up to separate couples. It is not so. On the contrary, the courts will strive to unite them. Divorce is decreed in only exceptional cases, that too after exhausting all procedures such as counselling, mediation and psychological assistance. In cases of alcoholism, the person is referred to a de-addiction centre,” says Geetha Ramseshan, another advocate who deals with matrimonial cases.

“There are so many problems within a family and among spouses. The younger generation nowadays is quite different. The problems being faced by the IT professionals are unique. Therefore, each town needs a family court,” says Ramseshan.

T S Sekaran

CUTTACK

Sarojini Das has been making the rounds of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate’s court in Ganjam for the last three years. The 28-year-old has filed a suit seeking maintenance from her husband, who deserted her after five years of marriage. Date after date, the hapless woman who has a meagre source of livelihood and hopes for an order ensuring the payment of a monthly maintenance to her, goes to court but returns disappointed as the case is not heard or is posted for another date. The reason: a huge cause-list or non-appearance of her spouse.

Das is not the only one. Thousands of women, particularly from the lower class and the backward sections of our society are going through similar ordeals across courts in Orissa, because of the paucity of designated courts for adjudicating family cases. The number of these cases is only spiralling because of modernity-spurred marital discords coupled with rising levels of awareness on rights of relief.

Orissa, which has a population of more than four crore, has only two family courts, one in Cuttack and the other in Rourkela. The people in the other 25 districts have to bank on the courts of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate and judicial magistrate first class for maintenance cases and the civil judges for divorce and separation cases. As such, though all disputes relating to family matters are to be settled within one year, only a handful of cases have been decided within the constitutionally stipulated timeframe.

“The delay is inevitable. The trial courts have a back-bending backlog of cases. Thus, family cases, especially those relating to separation and maintenance, are pushed to the backburner,” explains a judicial officer. The non-appearance of the spouses on summons, as well as the inaction of police in executing warrants issued against them has also been a bane, the officer added.

At present, more than three lakh cases are pending in the lower judiciary with matrimonial cases accounting for at least 40,000 of them. The situation in the family courts in Cuttack and Rourkela is not much better. Several cases are pending in these courts, which are plagued by infrastructure deficiencies and shortage of staff.

The Cuttack court alone has a backlog of around 5,000 cases with an average of 1,800 cases being filed every. The court premises comprises one hall, half of which is used for court purposes and the other as office and chamber. Counselling, which forms the core of settling family matters, through mediation and reconciliation, is worst hit as there is no space nor atmosphere for vital personal interactions. The two counselors have to sit in non-conducive zones with litigants, who would not open up in public. Thus, reconciliation overtures are grossly affected and this leads to cases dragging on. Besides, around 325 warrants in maintenance cases have been issued between 2001 and 2008, but these have not been executed by the police.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been quick to announce the setting up family courts in seven districts within this year. If things move in the right direction, it would provide the much needed succour to suffering people.

(Names have been changed to honour the privacy of the litigants)

Bikram Nayak and SN Agragami

KARNATAKA

The need for external mechanisms to resolve family disputes is as much a reality in Karnataka as anywhere else. Unfortunately, there are only 15 family courts in the state and none in north Karnataka. This has forced people to head to the mediation centres , which have been set up as an alternate forum for dispute resolution.

Of the 5,834 cases filed in the family courts in the state since January 2007, 4,356 were referred to the mediation centres, which have a 70 per cent success rate for divorces and custody disputes, and an overall success rate of 53 per cent. In contrast, in family courts, people are forced to wait an entire day, not knowing when they would have to appear before an adjudicator — most of the time for an adjournment. This also translates into more money for lawyers.

The director of the mediation center, K N Keshavanarayana, points to the positive nature of intervention at the centres. Besides, disputes referred to mediation centers have to be resolved in 60 days. Buoyed by the success of these centres, 10 more have been planned in the districts, where the picture is dismal with some not having any family court.

Several disputes await resolution in Belgaum but there is only one family court. The backlog is inevitable — about 1,500 cases are pending and 100-120 are scheduled per day.

In Shimoga, the number of cases is steadily on the rise but are being dealt with the at the civil courts and the delays have caused disappointment. Till 2006-07 about 2,000 matrimonial cases, including 938 maintenance cases, were to be resolved. One example is that of Santosh and his wife, who have been waiting for two-and-a-half years to divorce. “If there was a family court, our case would have been concluded much earlier,” says Santhosh. A family court has finally been sanctioned in Shimoga district and is expected to start functioning after the vacations.

Even Mangalore does not have a family court. This results in a lot of frustration for the litigants one of whom points out that the chief judicial magistrate’s court first hears motor vehicle cases and then takes up those pertaining to conjugal rights and maintenance issues, as petty criminals, police personnel and sneering lawyers look on.

“Lawyers do not believe in protecting the institution of marriage and always skip conciliatory steps to directly file for divorce,” asserts the journalist. This eagerness to file cases, compounded by the dearth of family courts, only adds to the backlog.

(Nandini Chandrashekar in Bangalore, Harsha in Mangalore, Tushar A Manjukar in Belgaum and Ancy Johnson in Shimoga)

ANDHRA PRADESH

The record has been dismal. More than two decades after a central legislation was enacted for the creation of family courts, Andhra Pradesh has just four — one each in Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Visakhapatnam and Khammam. Between 2006 and now, orders were issued for the setting up of 18 more courts, but these are yet to come into being for a variety of reasons, including lack of infrastructure.

As a result, cases are still heard by regular courts in most cases and thus drag on for five or more years. Even in the family courts, cases drag on for more than two years as the presiding officers are overburdened — in Hyderabad, more than 1,000 cases are filed every year. Unable to handle the pressure, presiding officers have been outsourcing the cross-examination by appointing advocate commissioners, so that the judges themselves can devote time to reconciliation, which constitutes the core activity of a family court. To save time, arguments are also permitted only in writing.

The government order of March 28, 2006, sanctioned nine family courts — one each in Guntur, Karimnagar, Visakhapatnam, Eluru (West Godavari district), Anantapur, Rangareddy, Khammam, Kadapa and Vizianagaram. On January 17, 2008, it ordered the creation of courts in Hyderabad, Nellore, Prakasam, Adilabad, Srikakulam, Mahboobnagar, Nalgonda, Sangareddy (Medak district) and Rajahmundry (East Godavari district).

A senior official of the Andhra Pradesh High Court admits that the delay in setting up these courts has been causing inconvenience to litigants, but says, “The process is almost over and judges would be posted in all family courts by end of this month.”

Says advocate Vasudha Nagaraj, who was part of a team led by senior matrimonial lawyer Flavia Agnes that studied the functioning of family courts across the country in 2004, “It is true that a case is taking nearly two to three years to get disposed of, but regular courts take twice as much time. There are also some other good features about these courts — adjournments are not given easily, there is no court fee and the parties are made to appear regularly.”

The panel submitted its recommendations to all family court judges and district legal services authority.

For Andhra Pradesh, these include a separate room for access to children as orders are passed for the non-custodial parent to meet the child within the court premises, cells to provide basic information regarding court procedures, dates and status of the case; pre-litigation counselling centres so that a dispute can be amicably resolved, and appointment of lawyers only as amicus curiae and not in a commercial mode.

V L Srinivasan

KERALA

The very concept of marital law in India changed with the enactment of the Family Courts Act in 1984. Conciliation and peaceful settlement of family disputes became the key words. The family courts were also seen as a way of doing away with the protracted procedures of the civil courts and thus reduce the suffering of the litigants.

However, these institutions have not been totally successful. Kerala has 16 family courts — two each in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam and one each in the other 12 — but these have been unable to cope with the load. There were as many as 30,741 cases pending in these courts, many more than three years old.

One reason for this is the tremendous social change that has taken place in the state. The change in lifestyle caused by the inflow of NRI funds, the education and employment of women and their consequent economic independence, gender sensitization, the surge in nuclear families, consumerism, and increasing criminality have all affected the family set-up and led to a rise in the number of broken homes and divorce cases.

Some other issues also need to be addressed. The provisions of the civil or criminal procedure codes do not bar family courts from laying down their own procedures for the settlement of matrimonial disputes. The Act, with the aim of achieving reconciliation, also envisages the association of people engaged in social welfare in the resolution of disputes. However, family courts are often not conducive to reconciliation and “act as extensions of civil courts”, says advocate Lekha Suresh, who has been very active in the social sector.

The Act also provides for appointment of counsellors to assist family courts dispose of disputes. However, the number of cases is so large that it becomes difficult for counsellors to discharge their duties properly and they, thus, act mechanically.

A family court can also take the help of a medical expert or a person professionally engaged in promoting the welfare of the family. The state is supposed to pay the expert but more often than not the parties are forced to fork out the money. “How many people can afford this?” asks Lekha. The aim of setting up family courts is “to treat the root cause instead of treating the symptoms”, as a division bench of the Kerala High Court pointed out. However, even now the symptoms, and not the root causes, are being treated.

Scaria Meledam

Nymphotropism a boon or a bane?

2008-05-08T21:11:00.000+05:30

Protect women, as they are the propagators of the clan, the age old line of thought reflects itself in the design of the oldest and hitherto most sacrosanct social institution called MARRIAGE which forms the basis of blissful life and the foundation of societal structures. And that is fairly acceptable too, if we delve deep into the factual synopsis leading to the concept of marriages. The institution of marriage was in actuality designed to provide protection to the female members of the social clan. Biologically females have reproductive power and this makes it important to the society to take care of the females by protecting them, even if they are criminals. Genetically males are designed to feel heroic saving a woman, and want to go out of the board in their bid to protect a female from another male. Welcome to the euphoria of Nymphotropism which has so far been very influential in the major events worldwide.

Nymphotropism, as we take its view as the conjugate equivalent of chauvinism, is quite a controversial phenomenon universally for expressiveness and emotional outcry being the formidable most and distinctive features of the female gender, cannot be merely ruled away as a manipulative tool nor be taken for granted at all instances to be genuine and true, though it enjoys a ubiquitous benefit of doubt ab initio. A woman’s tear does rattle the audiences’ heart for once and wicked women take advantage of this to fool a man into believing her alleged and described ordeals to be true. Well this may be disastrous as she could be conspiring against a man to settle her personal vendetta, by making two men fight over her. Her victim could be innocent as well who would be vandalized as the woman’s tears were believed to be true, courtesy, Nymphotropism. As we started with the thought of protecting women for they are the propagators of the clan, but then do not men need a protection and as this question certainly irks the rationale, it has a very straightforward answer as well, males being accorded the role of a Protector and the Provider in the society need to make provisions to protect themselves, for one who is not able to protect self, cannot protect others.

A man, who protects a woman, not only develops a self- feeling of greatness and overwhelming, but is also hailed by peers and superiors equally and so this adds another point to the ever spreading influence of Nymphotropism. Taking a cue from this, wicked men world over have always tried to portray their own brethren in bad light, by passing over their own misdeeds as traits of men, in general, and making the world believe that women need a lot of protection from men and this protection has to come from a man only. Sounds ironical but is unfortunately true as well. This practice mandated the formulation of laws needed to protect women. So we can see that it was Nymphotropism that led to the foundation of a societal and legal structure that accords a very fragile and victimized status to women and an oppressing view to men. While this helps wicked men and women get their way along, it’s the innocent ones (both men and women) who suffer because of this. Not only this there are many other unthought-of and non – analyzed fallouts and consequences of Nymphotropism which we shall see further.

Going by statistics we have close to 70, 000 cases of dowry harassment filed every year and about 8000 cases of Domestic Violence, 98 % of which are false and hence uncalled for in first place. And then these cases go on running for years together with little progress except for changing dates and applications and objections. Also each such matter involves close to 5-6 intertwined cases each having its own set of applications and objections. If we calculate the huge amount of paper base that is wasted for these false cases, all thanks to Nymphotropism, which facilitated the enactment of heavily lopsided laws, open to wide misuse void of any punishment for the same, the substantial contribution that goes to global warming because of this paper wastage is hard to imagine. And Nymphotropism is not an isolated phenomenon in India alone it exists world over and hence projecting the above paper wastage world over, it will be petrifying to imagine the amount of global warming that has attenuated. For paper is made from wood pulp and for that the forest cover is devoured thus leading to lesser and lesser rainfall and we have what almost every scientist on earth has been talking of, THE GLOBAL WARMING, though not solely caused as a side – effect of Nymphotropism, but has a substantial share attributed to it. And there is one more reason to this, the more such cases are filed, the more people require to travel, intra – city, inter – city, inter – country thus leading to increased fuel consumption and increased pollution and carbon emanation into the atmosphere.

Had it not been for Nymphotropism to believe everything that a woman says decorated with tears, even to the extent of ignoring and invalidating irrefutable evidence proving the alleged ordeals otherwise, we would not have had such a bad state of affairs, currently the institution of marriage and society is in. Men in the western countries have already started despising marriage and the average age of marriage has gone up drastically, men in India, have started developing distrust and a hidden fear regarding marriage. If, once for a while we assume that draconian marital laws are not misused, then also this sweet monster called Nymphotropism is disastrous to men married to wicked wives, as they will keep driving the nymphomaniac society towards these men, either for sadistic pleasure or realize their ulterior motives and objectives.

Nymphotropism breeds ignominy and distrust among males, as generally it is a man against another man due to an intervening female. And again it is due to Nymphotropism only that eunuch impressed sons get separated from parents and we are yet to hear a single instance of a son disowning his parents prior to his marriage, for otherwise, instances are galore and not far to seek.

The time has come wherein the society realizes about the perils Nymphotropism poses to the human race and comes out of the lethal euphoria before it is too late.

Two newspaper reports on Bigamy-Adultery legal position:Actor Pavan Kalyan Case

2008-05-01T11:11:00.001+05:30

I have not married Pavan Kalyan: Counters Renu Desai (Courtsey The New Indian Express)
Wednesday July 4 2007 12:42 IST

VISAKHAPATNAM: In a curious twist to the tale, Renu Desai, who reportedly married actor Pavan Kalyan without the latter giving divorce to Nandini, stated in a reply to legal notices that she did not marry Pavan Kalyan at all.

Renu Desai’s reply came to light in the course of investigation on Tuesday and petitioner Nandini’s legal counsel is learnt to be exploring various options to make the actor depose before the judge.“It is a fact that the actress had responded to notices received by her on May 5, and has said in the counter that she did not marry Pavan Kalyan and she was implicated in the case without any involvement in the case,” Nandini’s advocate B Satyanarayana told this website’s newspaper.

Satyanarayana said Renu Desai had sent the reply on May 18 through her advocate in Hyderabad and it contained an address in Pune, suggesting that she was not with Pavan Kalyan.Much before the filing of a bigamy case by Nandini before the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate recently, several notices were sent to Pavan Kalyan and Renu Desai to undo the injustice done to Nandini.It was after the defendants gave unsatisfactory replies that the bigamy case was filed before the metropolitan magistrate.

A dowry harassment case under Sec. 498(A) was filed subsequently against the entire family of Pavan Kalyan, including his actor brother Chiranjeevi.Claiming to be the wife of Pavan Kalyan, Nandini contended that he married Renu Desai without divorcing her and sought a monthly alimony of Rs 5 lakh.

2nd Report
Pavan Kalyan wants divorce (Courtsey Times of India)
8 Mar 2008, 0324 hrs IST,TNN

VISAKHAPATNAM: With Nandini refusing the divorce plea of actor Pavan Kalyan on Friday, the case took a curious turn with the family court postponing the matter to March 28 for further hearing.

When the magistrate tried to counsel the warring couple, the actor reportedly stuck to his ground that there was no question of reconciliation with his estranged wife and he had no plans to live with her. He further argued that he had moved ahead with his life and he could not share or start a new life with Nandini and demanded a divorce from her.

Nandini's lawyer tried to reason out with the judge that his client was willing to go back and stay with the actor in Hyderabad. However, Pavan ruled out any rapprochement in this regard. At this point, Nandini made it clear that she was averse to divorce. When the judge sought to know whether she wanted a reconciliation, she replied 'yes', while Pavan Kalyan said 'no'. With the efforts to bring them together having failed, the judge postponed the case to March 28.

Meanwhile, Nandini pleaded with the magistrate to grant her Rs 1.6 crore along with a monthly alimony of Rs 5 lakh in the bigamy case she filed against the Telugu film actor. The bigamy case was dismissed by the Visakhapatnam metropolitan magistrate court last month. After taking versions of Pavan and Nandini in the alimony case, the judge postponed the case to March 28 for further hearing.

2008-04-29T21:09:00.000+05:30

‘Provision of Domestic Violence Act not against men’Man gets life imprisonment

Marriage is a folly: Kamal Haasan

Man gets life imprisonment
Molestation case: Cross-complaint lodged

Child survives mother's suicide bid

Haryana girls hone oratory skills

330 rape, molestation cases in Delhi in 2008

2 housewives end life

Priyanka Todi, father visit Tarapith

Wife kills husband's mistress in UP

Woman battered to death

House-help arrested for molesting actor

Wanted a bride for Bihar MLA

You may now kick the bride
Girls boycott classes
2 killed as drunken baraatis open fire
DNA confirms man fathered daughter's kids

Man cleared by DNA free after 27 years

Man booked for beating child

9 couples nabbed for obscenity

april 27

2008-04-27T20:05:00.000+05:30

Woman held for killing husband
Dowry case: Ex naib tehsildar booked
Rape: Time for stricter laws, more convictions
Oriya minors rescued from flesh trade
Man murders lover over money quarrel
Rape accused out on bail
Sodomy in jail leads to fisticuffs

RTI Act stronger than our law: US expert
Depressed, girl kills self in S Delhi

April 21

2008-04-21T21:44:00.000+05:30

Denied love, jawan kills self
4 accused of killing woman for dowry
Friendship networks under scanner
Taxi childbirth: BMC shrugs off blame
Cyber crime police station soon
Depressed over sister death, woman ends life
Couples take oath against foeticide
Boy returns after father pays ransom
Cop 'rapes' woman for 4 days
Suspecting affair, man kills wife
Punished by mom, teen stages own kidnap
Village bars blouses for women
Relief for man who dared to file PIL
Woman torched to death by husband
Rapists get worst deal in jails
Body of newborn baby found
Disturbing trend
Moms' new battle: The food price bulge
Looking for love? Keep an eye on your wallet
DNA testing to determine parents, sex abuse

April 19

2008-04-19T22:20:00.001+05:30

Why did Cong brass not back Rahul for PM?
Girls disappearign as India advances
Teen suicides
PIL pill for high courts
More Muslim women protest against biases in the south. Literacy, global pulls aid them.
Man cleared of threat to murder his wife
Govt's anti-Sati law plan put in cold storage
Woman’s death: three suspects questioned
Baby mix-up in Royapuram hospital sparks tension
Youth consumes poison, dies
Man falls into hot sambar, dies
In 2 yrs, 108 conservancy staff deaths
'Kidnapped' girl returns home
Parents refuse to take girl home despite positive DNA test
City couple arrested for abandoning newborn girl
City tops in male students' suicides
Couple held for murder of 7 in UP
Wife goes missing; techie suspects actor
Delhi kids pocket Rs 1,800 per month
For teens, more is never enough
Road rage: Man thrashed in Noida
Chargesheet filed against ex-MLA
Triple murder in Delhi
Cops solemnise minor's wedding
UK-based NRI refuses to accept 'holiday bride'
Italian court gives key accused 30-yr term
Wife behind attack on man, say police
BPO staffer stabbed
Putin denies wedding report with former gymnast
Mother reunites with daughter after 10 yrs
Mob thrashes woman for killing step-son
How Boys are potrayed like monsters and arrested in america
'Obscene MMS clip' forces two Goa girls to suicide
Mad in love, he killed his brother
Doc, skin this guy off my body!

April 18

2008-04-19T01:31:00.000+05:30

'I'm not a woman-eating Casanova'
Nigeria: Inheritance Rights And Women (iii)
Malaika-Arbaaz break-up a gimmick!
Aish opts for rajni and say no to Karan
Drop terrorism and choose the path of democracy tells Minister Rambukwella
Priyanka takes 17 years to make peace with father’s assasins – a possible opening for India to take a direct role in Sri Lanka
India should organise Lankan peace talks: Karunanidhi
Punjab: Case slapped on dowry-seeker
Married and divorced within 24 hours
Main Ek Abla Nari
Meri Shaadi Rukwaawo
Landlords can evict shop tenants: SC
Couple told to reunite after 17-year separation
Case against five of a family for demanding dowry
Defence ends arguments in Katara case
Indian women prowl the gumshoe beat
China praises India’s human rights records

April 17

2008-04-17T22:50:00.001+05:30

March on National Street Theatre Day
Sexual harassment at workplace to be checked
LINDSAY LOHAN TO DO MISSIONARY WORK IN INDIA
Arbaaz dumps Malaika, opting for second marriage!
Malaika, Arbaaz to divorce?
Indian courts recognise couples out of wedlock
The Truth Behind Rising Female Foeticide in India
Social networking sites see jump in Asian women subscribers
Indian men succumb easily to powerful women, says book
Hindu activists, women groups to protest against Royal Challengers' cheerleaders
Woman assaulted in moving vehicle
Man killed for protesting against obscene SMS
505 couples to tie the knot
Woman kills two daughters, ends life
Sex workers, sexuality minorities left out of voters’ list
Saris were not meant for voters, says BJP leader
Government to be blamed if rights panel is ineffective, says S.R. Nayak
Woman found dead
Housewife arrested
Sexual abuse at school: court favours monitoring system
Security guard kills wife, arrested
Home-alone elderly woman murdered
Woman branded witch, killed in Burdwan
NGO official detained for 'torturing’ maid
Body swap: Autopsy fails to convince family
Woman spots Peeping Tom near Vashi station loo

Press links: April 16

2008-04-16T20:59:00.001+05:30

Keep abreast of developments, woman advocates told
Woman injured in acid attack
Two arrested on murder charge
Suicide alleged
‘Rule of law losing relevance’
“Status of women has to improve”
Wife cries rape as man seeks abortion
Man hits wife in police station
Man kills relative over trivial issue
South Asian women to gather
Near empty Senate greets Patil in Brazil
'Jessica was not killed for refusal to serve liquor'
Giving hope to abused women
Comment Why not ban wedding meals, lighting?
Karate coach accused of molesting 5-yr-old girl
Urban India backs legal shield for live-in couples
Thirty percent of Indian men drink alcohol: Health Minister
Rushdie thanks novel for saving him from pain of divorce

April 15

2008-04-15T22:47:00.000+05:30

Intercaste marriage: 4 held for killing girl
Daughter beats mother to death
Grooms pay dowry for French brides
Mujhe meri biwi se bachao
Case against Techie
SC rejects no-dowry plea, denies daughter share in property
Couple commits suicide
HIV-infected man pricks children with needle soaked in his blood
Housewife ends life
Woman survives suicide bid, children die
Activists call for establishment of Juvenile Police Unit
India: priest runs matchmaker website
Sikhs flout new marriage act in Pak
POINT MADE
Immigrant spouse must be provided for despite divorce, court rules
Court says man must pay ex-wife who immigrated

press links :April 14

2008-04-14T22:03:00.001+05:30

The right to live with dignity
Women safe, as Domestic Violence Act retained
Court summons TV channel officials for derogatory video
IAMA seminar on domestic violence
More Websites Pro Suicide on the Internet
Men grow thrice as fast as women in India
Gigolo sites lure men, leave them high and dry
Divorce from Padma Lakshmi was painful: Rushdie
The crime wave in India
Towards the empowerment of Indian women
Dowries a 'symbolic' gesture in the West
One-year-old girl killed
Matrimonial meet for hearing impaired
Girl ‘commits suicide’
Women cops are 'knights' of the night
Army doc fakes suicide, elopes with senior's wife
Minor molested by 55-year-old
Mentally challenged minor raped
Molested, girl kills herself
Gangrape victim wants to go home
A packet of foetuses found in B'lore!

Press posts april 13- #2

2008-04-13T21:33:00.000+05:30

Fathima continues to be critical
Woman hacked to death
Husband seeks protection from wife
Woman kills children, immolates herself
Violence against Women
What goes around… comes around!
Harassed’ man seeks protection from wife
The Ladies’ Recoup
Ujjal and Raminder Dosanjh . Baby girls
An act of faith

Press posts 13 april 08

2008-04-13T19:30:00.000+05:30

Officer penalised for not furnishing information under RTI Act
Woman gets 2-yr RI for forging payslip
Son may be held for father's death
60-year-old arrested for raping minor
Woman with gun held at Mumbai airport
Minor gangraped, 5 months pregnant
Jewel thieves mum-daughter duo caught
Saleswoman planned attack: Police
Bar body gets woman president
Man slits estranged wife's throat
Dowry death' after love marriage
Couple nearly lynched by kin
Girl in love killed, cremated secretly
16-yr-old girl commits suicide
Gurus ran sex-shala
Salesgirl stabs elderly man
Woman supposedly killed by in-laws found living with lover
Women the biggest votaries for peace, says Sonia

Save India: Help by setting a goal to make laws

2008-04-12T06:44:00.000+05:30

-----Original Message-----
From: saveindianfamily@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:saveindianfamily@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Madhup Kumar
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 8:43 PM
To: nanette.braun@unifem.org; chandini.joshi@unifem.org
Cc: info@unifem-usnc.org; info@unifemul.org; info@unifem.ch; info@inifem.se;
admin@unifemsingapore.org.sg; lulucquezon@yahoo.com;
unifemnihon@crux.ocn.ne.jp; jean.c.t@clear.net.nz; inifemilatia@virgillo.it;
info@unifem.ie; steunumm@unifem.is; SIF
Subject: [SaveIndianFamily] Save India: Help by setting a goal to make laws
gender equal

Dear UN,

Please don't send Indian Husbands to Jails under unequal gender laws created
by UNIFEM.
Please don't drive the suicides rates of Indian men. It is 56000 Indian men
die by suicide due to indirect action of UNIFEM annually.
Oue mothers and sisters are arrested, over 95000 women in India have been
arrested in last four year.

Please make the Domestic Violence law Gender equal. Please remove the
section 498A. Please make it you UN millennium goals. If you want women to
march ahead in India, make the laws justice, campaign for it, don't kill men
to achieve that.

Remember UN is killing men, arresting people in India, elders , sisters,
brothers, men under false complaints. Then huge money is extracted. Then
there is corruption. The conviction rate is less than 2% in all these cases.
More than 98% cases in India are false. Please work on it o highest priority
withIndian counter parts. I have written a mail to Gita as well, enclosed.
This is pretty serious issue ina country of 1 billion. Wake up please.

Madhup
Save India Family Foundation.

http://indianjudgements.blogspot.com

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Madhup Kumar
To: gita@iimb.ernet.in
Cc: SIF
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 9:10:04 AM
Subject: [SaveIndianFamily] why do UNIFEM work in India against Indian
husbands?

Dear Gita Sen,

Dr. Gita Sen an Indian gender expert, is a professor at the Indian Institute
of Management in Bangalore, India
it is people like her who influence UNIFEM policies in India.

Why is 498A removal not in UN millennium goals. Why is domestic violence
removal not in UN millennium goals. Dr. Gita Sen, can you please help us
know?

1) We Indian husbands are being targeted by violent feminism and face
violent laws. Why is that laws in India not gender equal. Why is the
conviction rate in 498A cases only 2%? Why do you need more laws?
2) What is the rationale behind your policies and UN policies? UN speaks of
equal justice , why are you not on the side of justice. Why is UNIFEM
investing in India against Indian husbands? Why do you want to create an
image where Indian men are shown in wrong way. Why do you need the CAW
cells? Why do you terrorize people in the name of Gender?

3) Why were 95000 Indian women arrested in last four years of UPA rule? Why
is Gender a vote bank? Why do you need to give 1 Lakh per girl child per
birth in BPL family? why no gender equity there?
4) Why do parents of girl not give her share in property? why do you need
maintenance? why can't the girls of India stand on their two feet which god
has given them? why cant they earn on their own? all wives who have files
support cases in India can earn on their own. Look at your own "Women
Entrepreneurs Pro-gramme in IIMB" which is displayed? We want women to be
independent but why tarnish the image of Man, who no equal Rights for men?
5) Why do budget give more tax benefits to women? why do men not get more
paternity leaves? Why do men not get child custody or be able to be do
shared custody for their own children?
6) Why does man spend 4 months in jail based on false report of women? why
does man not get to participate in hos own child development as much as he
wants?
7) why are men not considered voices for abortion worldwide? why is right to
birth not given to man as he is also a parent?
8) why do divorce cases take so much time in India ? why do you harp on
false families leaving people distraught? why do extortion and corruption
based on false relationships and hence false laws.

I will be among the several voices who will ask these questions to you?Why
do we need radical feminism?

Why are you not shaping the millenium UN goals to accomodate our valid
concerns and making India more sane and giving justice to all irrespectiive
to gender?

Madhup
PS: If you don't want you receive mail on this id, please provide another
id. I want your answers on all my questions

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hNgwWOU1w3oawHNUI1C8WjChIYPAD8VUON680
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A women's network accused the United Nations of giving
in to political pressure in choosing a Spaniard to head the U.N. Development
Fund for Women over a candidate who was recommended by the selection panel.
DAWN, a network in developing countries that advocates for gender justice,
said that Gita Sen of India, one of the network's founders, was the only
candidate of six finalists recommended for the job by the U.N. panel that
conducted the interviews.
"However, because of the U.N.'s concerns over funding, and significant and
open political pressure from the government of Spain, other names from the
short-list were brought back into consideration," DAWN's Steering Committee
said in an open letter on Tuesday.
Spanish sociologist Ines Alberdi, a former member of the Madrid Assembly who
served as an expert in the European Union's Equal Opportunities Unit and has
done extensive research on gender issues, was selected Monday by Kemal
Dervis, the head of the U.N. Development Program in consultation with
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UNIFEM's consultative committee.
Women's rights groups noted that according to the UNIFEM 2006-2007 annual
report, the fund's leading donor was Spain at $11.4 million.
Alberdi's appointment was announced at the same time that of an Indian
research and policy expert with the World Bank, Ajay Chhibber, as assistant
secretary-general, assistant administrator of UNDP, and director of UNDP's
Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific.
UNDP spokesman David Morrison refused to answer any questions about the
selection process, passing queries to U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas who
said "there is no direct connection" between Spain's contribution, the
choice of Alberdi, and the selection of an Indian for a top post.
DAWN's letter said it was "dismayed" by the way in which the U.N. made the
UNIFEM appointment since the U.N. panel "identified one person, Dr. Gita
Sen, as outstanding and recommended her for the position."
Sen, an Indian gender expert, is a professor at the Indian Institute of
Management in Bangalore, India, and an adjunct lecturer at the Center for
Population and Development Studies at Harvard University's School of Public
Health. She is a founding member of DAWN, which stands for Development
Alternatives with Women for a New Era.
Montas called the selection process "comprehensive" and "extensive."
UNIFEM provides financial and technical assistance to programs in countries
around the world to promote women's rights and gender equality.

http://indianjudgements.blogspot.com

Differentiated Similarities

2008-04-11T08:13:00.000+05:30

Assumptions and hidden agendas wherever involved in the foundation and design of any society, can lead to serious problems over the years. Being deemed as the Protector, the Provider and the Adventurer, men themselves made the world believe that they cannot suffer. It is not hard to notice, parents telling their SON, be like a MAN, stop crying and learn to do things your own way. Well in a way that is good, as it teaches the MAN to be self – dependent as he has to Protect and Provide when HE grows up. But the imbibitions of this line of thought are so engraved and deep rooted that the MAN as HE grows up almost starts feeling sorry for feeling BAD, ABUSED, HARASSED, TORTURED. He starts feeling as though he has no RIGHT to do so. But that is not a healthy sign, even psychologists and relationship experts have voiced out their concerns over this behavioral traits of men and have enchanted it umpteen number of times that IT IS OK TO FEEL BAD AND SHARE THE SAME AND ACCEPT THAT SOMETHING IS BOTHERING THEM, but sadly enough it falls on deaf ears for age – old stereotypes which are rock – engraved take centuries of time and loads of sufferings, realizations and metamorphosis to take a new and desired form.

It is not uncommon to see that when a MAN tries to discuss his problems pertaining to a relationship, he is cornered saying either, “You are a MAN, stop cribbing like a WOMAN, or she is a WOMAN, it will be like this only.” Such responses have led to the establishment of euphoria in the societal as well as the legislative and the executive ambiance that Men do not need anything, they have everything. This was also recently upheld in a judgment by the Honorable Delhi High Court hearing a petition challenging the tenacity of the Domestic Violence Act 2005, citing it as Ultra Vires of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. The petition was dismissed saying the argument held no merit as the court was of the view that, “Though men are victims of violence, such incidences are few and far between, thus ruling out the possibility of protection from the parliament.” This statement, sadly enough reflects a very bad taste of mind, which though acknowledges the existence of domestic violence against men, but refuses to accept it for the very lack of proper data to substantiate a lesser known claim. If the data provided by the National Crime Records Bureau is anything to go by, the number of suicides committed by men in the year 2005 and 2006, stand at a staggering figure of 150000, as compared to 50000 for women. Does this not reflect the sorry state of affairs, Indian Men are currently in. Of these 150000, 108000 have been suicides by Husbands, which is fairly explainable enough as well, as the government which earns 82 % of taxes from these Men has washed off its hands of this alarming trend, these men have no protection, voice or say. Men are not only victims of Domestic Violence; they are victims of misuse of these laws as well. 99% of the cases of Domestic Violence and Dowry harassment filed against Men and their families are false and filed with a motive to extort money and unfortunately the Horse Trading goes on in the Temple of Justice and is passed off as WOMEN LIBERATION and EMPOWERMENT OF THE WEAKER SEX.

All Men around the HARASSED HUSBAND try to brainwash and console the man saying the girl needs money, protection etc. What these men fail to understand here is that there has been a serious role reversal of the perpetrator of violence and the victim of violence wherein the victim, being hailed as the criminal, is forced to compensate the tormentor, being hailed as the victim. Also these men feel great they are protecting a woman, which is good enough, for if the MAN is meant to protect, he should protect and feel good about it, but nowhere does it stand justified to protect at the cost of another MAN. But sadly enough this is the trend catching on slowly. It looks highly delirious for a MAN to exist in a society suffering from DOUBLE STANDARDS where one judgment speaks of the inability of the ambit of the Domestic Violence Act 2005 to cover men as victims and other one says that incidences of Domestic Violence being far and few between, men should not expect protection from the parliament. It is not hard to see the repercussions of such DIFFERENTIATED SIMILARITIES amongst men, who are now not even refraining from taking the law into their hands by either committing suicide or murder, what with having exasperated with the apathy meted out by the administrators of their own brethren.

Once again this question is put forward to the civil society and the government that are they ready to accept this trend, wherein cornered men think of snuffing of life as the only final solution or they have the guts and willingness to change the courses of the tides and the winds. I hope some spineless men start developing spines after reading these lines.

Spineless Men

2008-04-09T22:44:00.001+05:30

In what has been an age old testament regarding the sensibilities of the genders, we have a preset imageries of the Sterner and the Fairer Sex, leading to the sediment of a quasi – rigid quasi – stubborn mindset which is stereotypically ubiquitous in nature, definition and essence, wherein the Sterner Sex, the Male Gender has been termed the Protector, the Provider and the Adventurer while the Fairer Sex, the Female Gender has been termed the object of Beauty, the Home Maker and the Life Giver. Men feel great providing and feel like God when they protect someone, especially a Woman and in this process often forget that they too are humans who can need someone. They feel a big problem discussing their problems and feel low doing so, forgetting the fact that they too are humans, females, on the other hand, find it quite natural to discuss their problems and also do not feel low doing so. This process combined over years of practice has led to a seemingly true and apparently explained perception that Women need a lot of protection and that protection has to come from a Man, wherein it led to the establishment of the euphoria mirrored in the statement, “Men’s Duties and Women’s Rights” which has been very instrumental in the design of the social norms and the legal design as well and Men have been highly instrumental in designing this euphoria. Over years of turmoil and toil this euphoria caught such an attention that the need or requirement for its conjugate euphoria, mirrored in the statement, “Men’s Rights and Women’s Duties” has either been never been felt or if ever sounded, was over - sounded and over – shadowed by the first one.

So ubiquitously it has been assumed that Men are guilty of crimes and Women, even if criminals are so due to some COMPELLING REASON, this has led to men being cornered over centuries so much so that, they are now viewed with suspicion and biased assumption, not only by Women folks, but by other Men as well. It is not uncommon to see that when a woman is embroiled in some crime, men and women, in general, empathizing with the culprit and struggling to find reasons leading to her metamorphosis to a criminal. On the other hand, the same case being with a Man, not only is he subjected to condemnation, prosecution and punishment shall also follow as package bonuses. That does not mean that he is allowed to commit crimes and should be encouraged to do so. Crime is Crime and is independent of gender. If a Man commits a murder or if a Woman commits a murder, it results in the same after – effect, a life is snuffed and denied existence. Then why do we have different standards set for treatment with the criminal based on gender. The man committing the murder is viewed as a criminal while a woman doing the same is viewed as an object of sympathy.

We do have such standards, for as they say that the society is male – dominated and if it is actually so that the society is male – dominated, then those men are spineless men who have set such standards. A standard suffering from an undue sentimental balance towards a particular gender which associates different assumptions for Men and Women. Very recently we had a landmark judgment from the Honorable High Court of Delhi expanding the ambit of the Domestic Violence Act 2005 to female partners engaged in live – in relationships with their male partners. This article is not meant to condemn the particular judgment, but the saddening fact is an unexplained assumption as cited in the judgment, “the court said that in a case of women having live-in relationships with a man it could be fairly assumed that the relationship was initiated by the man.” The question here that irks the rational mind is that, is starting any relationship solely dependent on only one of the partners or is it that when the relationship is sweet, both the partners cherish the fruit and when it goes awry only the Man is borne to bear the brunt of the fallacy. Did we give considerable weight age to other possibilities that the relationship was started mutually or the Man was forced into the relationship keeping in view the protection laws that exist in case the relation does not work and in that case a monetary relief from the Man to the Woman will be on its way?

Further points of gravitational significance in the judgment are “since an assumption can fairly be drawn that a live-in relationship is invariably initiated and perpetuated by the male” and “the court should also not be impervious to social stigma which always sticks to women and not to the men.” If we are going to have cases to be decided on such biased and preset assumptions then probably we can do away with the legal process and decide the cases arbitrarily because anyways Men are going to suffer from such assumptions wherein they are going to be denied fair and impartial justice and will be continued to be tried under loosely drafted laws prepared with a mindset against the principles of natural justice. Such judgments are just an addition to the growing mistrust amongst men towards the judiciary as has been recently highlighted with gruesome incidents like Amit Budhiraja of Infosys Technologies murdering his wife and subsequently committing suicide, citing marital problems as the reason for the extreme decision and its consequent implementation to reality and the more recent dual suicide by a techie couple in Hyderabad, again marital problems being at the core of the reason for the snuffing away of two young lives. These persons were of loose persona who preferred ending their lives rather than giving a fight against the adversities and showing the moral and courage to stride against the tide, but on a judgmental and analytical benchmark of post – incidental synopsis the height of frustration and apathy towards the government and the society to solve marital problems also comes to the fore decorated with another age – old assumption that, “Which marriage does not have problems?” If that be so and that being true, is it fair and just enough to allow crimes and murders to be the final solutions in such cases?

Amit Budhiraja was working with Infosys Technologies for nine years, elucidating his stable nature, took the extreme decision of killing his wife and committing suicide subsequently when his wife, allegedly, threatened him of a false dowry case, when he had come to know of an alleged affair of hers with a colleague of hers. He was well aware that with a biased society defined and ruled by spineless men, who prefer believing a woman’s tears more than irrefutable evidence, he had few chances to safeguard himself and his parents, once his wife would start crying TORTURE and DOWRY. It would be very hard for him to prove his innocence and an unnecessary legal battle of 5 – 6 years would ensue, stripping him off his finances. Day in and day out we see more and more such cases, where Men are denied a chance to even defend themselves, let alone imparting justice to them. Let us hope the civil society and the government and the judiciary wakes up to this alarming trend of growing distrust amongst suffering men for the cornering they are offered, leading them to turn to extremist and take the law into their hands, and does something to curb the menace. The article does not intend to justify the crimes committed by men, so what it has been fueled by the distrust and apathy, meted out to them, nourished by the system and the society, there has to be severe condemnation of crime, in order to curb it, but the society needs to wake up to this alarming trend and start to think of the conjugate euphoria described above and referred again here, “Men’s Rights and Women’s Duties”. Are those spineless men who believe that the society is male dominated ready to make an effort to institute the conjugate euphoria for suffering Men?

Man strips to get PF money in Vadodara

2008-03-27T22:14:00.002+05:30

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Man_strips_to_get_PF_money_in_Vadodara/articleshow/2902788.cms

VADODARA: A 41-year-old man, tired of running from pillar to post for his provident fund (PF), took Gandhigiri to new heights on Wednesday morning. Just like a character in Lage Raho Munnabhai, he stripped in the PF office at Akota to register his protest. The ploy worked. Senior officials have also suspended a clerk for delays and promised him the money before April 15.

Indravadan Patel had been coming from Atali village to the PF office since January for his Rs 50,000. But officials would ask him to come back another day with one document or another. Patel claimed that an employee had asked for Rs 1,000 bribe which he paid after borrowing from a friend.

"When I came to submit a form to redeem the money on January 1, I was asked to submit birth certificates of my sons. I submitted them on January 3 and was assured that I would get the money on February 2," said an agitated Patel, who worked for nine years in a private firm in Karjan that shut down last year.

"On February 22, my application was rejected. It was sent back to the company which revised the form and returned it to the PF office again. I was then asked to submit my wife's birth certificate, bank statement and experience certificate." On Tuesday evening he was told to come on April 10. By then, Patel had lost his patience. He came to the PF office on Wednesday and stripped down to his underwear.

"I had to sell my wife's jewellery and borrow money to sustain my family. These people have no heart." He admitted that he was not only inspired by Munnabhai but also Pooja Chauhan, the woman in Rajkot who had stripped and walked the streets in Rajkot to protest.

The police have booked him for indecency in public but Patel has filed a police complaint against PF officials for mental harassment. Regional PF officer MP Sinha immediately suspended clerk Nagendra Kumar. "His claim is due for settlement before April 15. I will ensure that he gets his dues," he said.

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judge Chandiwal looked visibly upset

2008-03-26T22:30:00.002+05:30

sab natak,
sab maya
sab paisa
sab moh

yeh humara samaj
yeh apni zindagi
yeh inka dhanda
yeh mere muskorahat

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Trace_Kasliwal_victim_in_4_weeks/articleshow/2896590.cmsOn hearing this judge Chandiwal looked visibly upset. He said, "How can the police not provide any protection to the victim when the high court itself had spoken of it while granting bail to the accused? Why have the police not followed the orders, please explain it to me

Eve-teaser cop thrashed, suspended

2008-03-26T21:24:00.000+05:30

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Eve-teaser_cop_thrashed_suspended/articleshow/2896583.cms
LUCKNOW: Passing a lewd remark at a young girl proved costly for a tipsy constable who was first hit by the victim herself and then left to face the ire of the onlookers who gathered at the scene in Janpath Market area of Hazratganj on Monday evening. The constable was then handed over to the police. Found drunk on duty, the constable was subsequently put under suspension and an inquiry was ordered into the allegations levelled by the victim who refused to get a formal FIR registered against the accused. Eye-witnesses told mediapersons that it was around 8 pm when a girl passing by the parking slot in Janpath Market suddenly stopped before a police constable in uniform. "Even before we could understand what was happening, the girl took off her sandals and attacked the khaki clad before she was stopped by the onlookers. When the girl revealed that the constable had not only passed lewd remarks at her but also tried to get physical, the mob turned against the cop," said an attendant of the parking slot. Identifying himself as Mohd Abbas posted at the local Hazratganj police station, the constable tried to explain that he was innocent. In the process, however, it was established that he was heavily drunk. This left the mob agitated. The constable was then thoroughly beaten up by the mob before some other policemen on duty in the area intervened. Talking to TOI, senior superintendent of police (SSP) Akhil Kumar said, "The complaint was about the constable's misconduct and he has been suspended as the charges levelled against him were found to be true." The Janpath incident is not the only one to tarnish the image of the local police. Monday proved to be a bad day for the police otherwise also as two more cops were suspended, taking the total number of cops punished in March to 28. The other two to be suspended were Ram Babu and Uday Pal Singh, both were deployed in Hazratganj police circle.

Haryana approves Marriage Bill

2008-03-26T21:19:00.002+05:30

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Haryana_approves_Marriage_Bill_/articleshow/2899991.cms

CHANDIGARH: Amidst suggestions of bringing down the marriageable age for boys from 21 to 18 years, the Haryana Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday approved the Haryana Compulsory Registration of Marriages Bill, 2008, that was introduced by parliamentary affairs minister Randeep Singh Surjewala during legislative business hours of the Budget session. The assembly also passed the Punjab Agriculture Produce Markets (Haryana amendment) Bill. Putting forth his viewpoint, INLD MLA Dr Sushil Indora not only demanded the lowering of age for boys, but also urged the speaker for special incentives or provisions for promoting inter-caste marriages. "There should be some social security for youths as well," suggested Indora. Adding to that, Naresh Malik, a Congress MLA said, "This is certainly a good move. If voting age can be 18, then why can’t one marry at that age?" While Radhey Shyam Sharma was the third MLA who suggested bringing down marriageable age, finance minister Birender Singh informed, "It’s for the Centre to decide on the issue and leaders are seriously working towards it. We will follow whatever the Centre suggests." INLD MLAs, headed by supremo Om Prakash Chautala, staged yet another walkout after heated arguments with speaker Dr RS Kadian over water crisis in Gurgaon.

2008-03-26T21:10:00.000+05:30

PRESS RELEASE - Dharna in Pune City on 29th March demanding Men’s Welfare Ministry
Posted by mynation on March 26th, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
In association with Rakshak Foundation and MyNation Foundation
Misuse of anti-dowry laws and other woman-protection laws has now become a well recognized problem in India. Increasing number of aged parents, sisters, pregnant women and even little children in the husband’s family are falsely accused and arrested under these inhumane laws, and find themselves defenseless against the systematic harassment unleashed thereafter by the state sponsored institutions.
To protest against this outrageous and horrific legal terrorism sponsored by the state and its institutions Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF) will conduct a protest On Saturday, 29th March 2008, demanding the establishment of Men’s Welfare ministry and National Commission for Men (NCM). People from all walks of life including Software engineers, doctors, drivers and plumbers will participate in this protest. Azim Premji, CEO of Wipro, who faced a false and frivolous Domestic violence case by wife of an employee of Wipro, has also been invited to the protest. In addition, several reputed lawyers from Pune city have been invited and are expected to attend the event.
The location of the Protest will be in front of Shivaji Nagar Court, Gate # 1 and the time of the protest is from 11:00am till 2:00pm. About 150 men, women, elders and children are expected to participate in the protest. Most of them are scientists, NRIs, Software Engineers, Doctors, Lawyers and Business persons. The protests will be held every month in different parts of India till Indian parliament amends the laws to “stop legal terrorism” and makes all the laws “gender neutral” and “crime based”. A series of protests have been conducted in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Lucknow in the last three months for the same purpose by respective chapters of Save Indian Family Foundation.
Over the years, various responsible agencies including Indian Judiciary have stressed on the need for amending these atrocious laws. The World Health Organization identified misuse of IPC Section 498A as the prominent reason for elder abuse in India. The Supreme Court of India has described the misuse of IPC Section 498A as ‘Legal Terrorism’, and stressed that the law must be amended in order to protect the innocent, and to ensure justice to the genuinely aggrieved. Rational and responsible citizens from all over the country and abroad have repeatedly warned that these laws in their present form are detrimental to family harmony, and left unchecked, these laws have enormous potential to shatter marital and family stability in years to come.
While ordinary law-abiding men, along with women, senior citizens and children, are being summarily arrested and ruthlessly incarcerated on false charges of dowry harassment every day, the Government has not raised a finger yet. It was not until the Union Minister for Human Resources Development (Mr. Arjun Singh) was accused of dowry harassment that Smt. Renuka Chaudhary (Union Minister for Women welfare) finally acknowledged the misuse of anti-dowry laws in public. What is deeply agonizing to us is that contrary to the way common men and women are arrested immediately and suspended from their jobs, the Government is according special concessions to the HRD Minister Mr. Arjun singh who is not arrested till date or has been suspended from his job yet, thereby demonstrating that the otherwise brutal anti-dowry laws do not apply equally to all citizens of India. In addition, Union Minister for Coal Mines (Mr. Dasari Narayan Rao) who faces dowry harassment charges by his daughter-in-law is also not arrested or suspended from his job yet violating the norm followed for common citizens.
Today, men and women in his family are facing a lot of issues due to lack of protection to men according to law from extortion, dowry harassment (of men), domestic violence and economic abuse. According to National Crime Records Bureau, in every 10 minutes a husband is committing suicide in India due to domestic violence and financial abuse by wife and her family. About 90,000 innocent women were arrested in the last four years on false dowry harassment cases alone. The grim statistics from National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) speaks volumes about the systematic abuse of men in India.
The current Domestic Violence act (DV act 2006) was drafted by divorced women lawyers, whose expertise on 1st principle of law making and justice is questionable. Some of their key members are unable to understand that words police, bail, jail, bonds have no place in DV act which is supposed to be civil law. The current Domestic violence Act suffers from too many maladies including the fact that the definition is wrong, procedures are wrong and the relief is wrong. There have been many instances wherein violent and abusive women have got their way not to mention the fact that under the law men have no rights or protection from any kind of abuse. The law is used grab the property and wealth created by Elderly People out of their retirement funds and force them out of their own homes to live in temples and gurudwaras. This has removed the peaceful residency rights of elderly people from their own hard earned homes and unleashed “legal violence” on elderly. The Supreme Court of India has termed the DV Act as a badly drafted law, which can lead to “social chaos”.
That the Dowry law and Section 498a of IPC are being heavily misused is no longer in question. As per National Crime Records Bureau (2005) more than 98% of the dowry harassment cases are false. The judges have spoken. Justice Malimath Committee has already recommended the law to be made bailable. Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice Seema of Supreme Court have already spoken in anguish about it and termed the misuse of Section 498a as “legal Terrorism”. They also urged the legislature/parliament to make provisions to stop misuse of the Law. The Indian parliament has ignored this judgment and repeated requests by Supreme Court to stop misuse of dowry law for last 2 years for reasons best known to them.
The judgments denouncing the legal terrorism are too numerous. Considering families as “guilty till proven innocent” is against the cardinal principles of natural justice.
The impact of the legal terrorism is enormous:
In every 6 minutes an innocent is arrested.
In every 30 minutes an innocent woman is arrested.
In every 2 hours an innocent elderly is arrested
In every day an innocent child and a pregnant women are arrested
Source: National Crime Records Bureau 2005
Thousands of men are forcibly separated from own their children if there are any differences between the couple. Thousands of children today are living as fatherless children as they are forcibly disconnected from their fathers. As a result, the suicide rate of Indian Men is increasing at a rapid rate. At present, about 73000 men commit suicide out of 113,000 over all suicides in India every year. The Married men’s suicide is extremely high (52483 suicides) and at least 24000 married men commit suicide directly due to domestic violence by wives and till date there is no law to save them (source : National Crime Bureau). Recent suicides and suicide notes left by Late Mr. Pushkar Singh (Lucknow) and Late Mr. Amit Budhiraja (Bangalore) where they have explicitly mentioned the threats of false dowry cases for their suicide, point to the terrible systematic abuse driving innocent people to commit suicide due to lack of any other option.
The contribution and sacrifices that men make to society with commitment and shear hard work are often neglected. Slapping Men by women is considered a fashion and is encouraged in TV commercials, TV Serials and in Movies, where as if a man slaps a woman then it is considered as worst form of domestic assault and a hue and cry is raised. It has become a fashion to abuse men and to portray them in bad light.
Save Indian Family Foundation also demands a commission for Men Issues. When there can be commissions and ministries for women, children, minorities and even Animals, why there can not be a Men’s Welfare Ministry and National Commission for Men (NCM)? After all, it is the Men who work in most hazardous and difficult environments like working as a Coolie, a rickshaw puller, a fire fighter, a soldier or garbage cleaner. In every 10 minutes a married man commits suicide in India. Life expectancy of men is lesser than women. The tax money paid by men contributes to 84% of all funds to government and it is appalling that this same money given by them is used to abuse, harass and torture those very people who contribute this money to run the government and society.
Some of the demands by Save Indian Family Foundation:
That 498a (Dowry law), DV act 2006 and Dowry act be made gender neutral. All laws must be crime based and not based on religion, caste or gender as it is against the fundamental principles of humanity. A murder committed by woman is no less a crime than a murder committed by man. Slapping husband is as heinous as slapping wife and hence both must invite equal punishment by amending Domestic Violence Act (DV act 2006). Gifts given by husband during or after marriage to wife or any of her family members must be treated as dowry given by husband to wife and must be treated as his property to be returned to his family in the event of his un-natural death.
Set up Men’s welfare ministry and National Commission for Men to reduce the alarming number of 73,000 men suicide per year. In comparison, married women suicide rate is just 26,000 per year.
Senior citizens in this country have no security or protection in their old age due to the abuse of these gender biased laws and are mercilessly thrown out of their own homes and forced to run around courts. We want senior citizen abuse to stop immediately. We want that young members of family must support elders. In the event of un-natural death of a son, we demand that the duty to care for the old in-laws must be given to his widow by default and strictly implemented. It is often difficult for senior citizens to work for a living in the last phase of life and it must be the duty of young members in the family including daughter-in-law to help the weak and old members during their most vulnerable phase.
Stop country’s next generation kids from growing without fathers (so called Pappa) and becoming criminals. A shared parenting (Equal custodial rights) must be the default in the event of a divorce, unless there is undeniable evidence to prove the cruelty of either spouse. With concessions accorded to women in education, jobs, income-tax payment and promotions it is far easier for women to find work and hence the idea of alimony must be made gender neutral and applicable to both spouses based on economic status rather than gender.
Punishment to those who file false cases once the above amendments (making laws crime based and gender neutral) are made. This will prevent false and frivolous cases from being filed. As per National Crime Record Bureau (2005 records), 98% of the dowry harassment cases were false. This puts tremendous burden on the state judicial and police machinery and has prevented genuine victims from getting justice (as it takes about 10 to 15 years for any case to reach its logical conclusion).
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has reported that Tihar jail is overflowing with innocent victims of false dowry cases who are the majority of inmates. This over crowding of jails has resulted in criminals roaming on the streets while innocent are lodged in jails and has tremendously increased crime in society. In addition, the over burdened police is not able to concentrate on its other critical duties like watching terrorists and this has increased the terrorism in the country as witnessed by recent serial bomb blasts in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.
Spread awareness of the abuse of men and misuse of laws amongst authorities.
Gender neutrality training (as opposed to biased gender sensitivity training) to all authorities, police and judiciary. Crimes do not have religion, caste or gender and hence we demand that no laws be based on religion, caste or gender and create needless divisions and abuse innocent in the society.
Include help booths to protect abused men suffering from domestic violence or financial abuse by wife to be run by NGOs in the Police Commissioner’s offices.
Celebrate International Men’s day and recognize the tremendous contributions of men to society in the role of a son, brother, husband and father.
All family laws must be drafted by retired judges and preferably include grand mothers and grand fathers who have led successful family lives, understand the nuances of family issues and know how to solve them in an amicable way. Sadistic and failed women from national women commission have no role to play in family affairs as they have proven themselves to be anti-social with their activities of abuse on innocent.
This necessitates that Government appoint a Men’s Welfare Ministry and National Commission for Men (NCM) immediately to look into the issues holistically and provide relief to all citizens irrespective of gender and age.
On 29th March (Saturday), SIFF NGO activists from various cities of India will conduct a protest in front of Shivaji Nagar Court, Gate # 1, Pune City from 11 AM to 2 PM to demand formation of Men’s Welfare Ministry and National Commission for Men (NCM). SIFF is requesting you to cover this protest by sending your journalists and anchors to attend the event, who will be regarded as invited guests.
Soft copy of this press release can be downloaded from http://pressroom.prlog.org/siff_pune/
Contacts for Media (PUNE City):
Amitabh: 9923056460Mahesh: 9850583751Mayur: 9822010469Srinivas: 9922401332Sameer: 9822799503Sumit: 9923888720Vinay: 9922379103Suraj: 9923697168
HelpLine Numbers.
All India HelpLine Numbers : 9243473794, 080-65334135 ( Bangalore )
Delhi
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9891369616
Delhi
9811624141
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033-25347398
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09848280354
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09839038424
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Nasik
9371988132
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Nagpur
9890974788
Jaipur
09352562456
U.S.A
650-430-9544
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Kuwait
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Between 10AM-5PM
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http://saveindianfamily.org http://mynation.net http://protectindianfamily.org http://mensday.in http://498a.org

Minister digs for rapes in Cong regime

2008-03-26T15:05:00.002+05:30

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Minister_digs_for_rapes_in_Cong_regime/articleshow/2899954.cms

GANDHINAGAR: After the gangrape of a student in DIET-PTC at Patan exposed the marks-for-sex scam — that thrived when Anandiben Patel was the education minister — guess what the minister's new department is concerned about?

History of such incidents before the BJP came to power in 1995!

Instead of stemming the rot and doing justice to the rape victim, the women and child development department wants a list of similar incidents that took place before BJP came to power in 1995.

This department, currently headed by Anandiben, asked the home department to furnish a list just after two days of TOI exposing the Patan gangrape.

TOI came to know about this issue from the file noting made by deputy secretary, home, HJ Brahmakshatriya, on February 13. Brahmakshatriya sent a reminder to DGP PC Pande, along with a file, saying, "Hon. minister of state, women and child development's personal secretary had asked for details to be sent across of such incidents between the time period of 1985 and 1995".

The MoS in Anandiben's ministry is Maya Kodnani.

Brahmakshatriya wanted the information in two days of February 13, but the DGP's office has reportedly not furnished this information till now.

The reason for the same is said to be fallout over the ongoing political tussle between Anandiben and MoS for home, Amit Shah.

Brahmakshatriya had also written to Pande on February 7, asking him to find out about such incidents during the Congress regime when Amarsinh Chaudhary, Madhavsinh Solanki, Chimanbhai Patel and Chhabildas Mehta served as the chief ministers.

Orissa Speaker faces sexual harassment charges

2008-03-26T13:08:00.002+05:30

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/orissa-speaker-faces-sexual-harassment-charges/61976-3.html

New Delhi: Orissa Assembly Speaker Maheshwar Mohanty is in trouble. He has been accused by Assembly marshall Gayatri Panda of sexually harassing her.

Twenty-nine-year-old Panda has alleged Mohanty used to call her to his chamber alone and even sent a car to her place late in the night. Panda also says the Speaker, who was aware she was unmarried, used to make lewd gestures at her.

"I am unmarried and stay alone. He used to send a car to my place at midnight and ask me to meet him alone. When I did House duty on the Speaker's dias, he would call me to his chamber. I can't describe what he used to do then. It's sad that a place where laws are made is a place that is not safe for women," Panda said.

The marshall claims she had lodged a complaint with the Assembly secretary on March 21.

However, Mohanty has denied the accusations. He says Panda is under suspension for dereliction of duty and is trying to blackmail her way back to the job.

She is blackmailing me, 100 per cent. You must have heard what she said. She says I have been frequently calling her to my chamber. That's not true. In fact, she was the one who came and approached me for an accommodation. I have never met her alone in my chamber during four years," Mohanty told CNN-IBN.

He also alleged there was a political conspiracy against him. "If someone has something against me, he or she will obviously come up with some or the other baseless allegation. She has been on suspension for negligence of duty and disobedience. To get rid of that, she has resorted to this method of blackmailing. I smell conspiracy. Though the matter is still pending inquiry so I cannot say who is behind this. I leave it to the inquiry body to look into this," he said.

The Speaker also says he heard about the complaint 10 days ago." She hasn't sent an official letter. The law is that if someone is facing disciplinary action, he/she has to be given a chance explain the charges. Her reply has not come yet," he said, referring to the case against Panda.

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WORDS OF ONE 498A LADY IN PATIALA HOUSE COURT

2008-03-26T00:31:00.002+05:30

judge: why u file 498a on husband
498a lady: because i too much love him
judge: how
498a lady: because i do not want that wo mere siva kuch or sochey

the strategy is

after 498a we think always 498a lady that how to win how to tackle what will be result when will get releif and many more

5 YEARS OF LOVE BUT NOT 5 DAYS OF MARRIAGE

2008-03-26T00:26:00.002+05:30

aisa kyon hota hai
ki pyar to 5 saal chal jata hai

lekin love marriage 5 din bhi nahi chalti

love behind hte 498a or love follow the 498a

SUICIDE IS THE LAST OPTION???????

2008-03-26T00:24:00.002+05:30

if not
why pushkar done that
why amit done that

i think
we want to save our families in respect of personal life

because men are always social in respect of 498a wives

Womens charter

2008-03-26T00:21:00.002+05:30

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/stories/20080411250702800.htm

Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.

Hema Malini, Esha and Ahana in a dance video

2008-03-26T00:20:00.002+05:30

http://www.indiafm.com/news/2008/03/25/11101/

Kiran Bedi calls for change in Indian education system

2008-03-26T00:18:00.002+05:30

http://www.newkerala.com/one.php?action=fullnews&id=39722

To the President of India

2008-03-25T23:30:00.000+05:30

To,
The Honorable President of India,

This is regarding the recent murder of a married woman Rinku Sachdeva by her husband, Amit Buddhiraj, who was an employee of Software Major Infosys
Technologies in Bangalore. Although the whole matter in the media is being
hyped up that he killed his wife suspecting her of having an illicit
relationship with one of her colleagues, but the truth is not that. His
suicide note clearly mentions that he feared that having found out his
wife’s extra marital affair, he was threatened of a false dowry harassment
case. He very well knew that in the current scenario if the wife files a
false dowry harassment case against him and his parents, they will land in
big trouble as the law is totally biased and draconian in nature,
implementation and definition. He had lost faith in the Indian Judiciary and police, and hence an intelligent person like Amit Buddhiraj was compelled to take the law in his hands and he also knew that there is no point in living after that as he is not going to get justice, so he himself committed suicide.

There are thousands of families suffering from false cases filed under Sec
489A and the Domestic Violence Act 2005 and lakhs of families living day in
and day out of a fear of a false case being lodged against them if they do
not accede to the demands of the girl and her parents. Such miscarriage of
justice and abuse of a noble cause for EMPOWERING WOMEN is ruining the
Indian family world over and unleashing a new form of LEGAL TERRORISM on
umpteen number of innocent families.

The family system of India, which has been the crown of the rich and varied
Indian culture is slowly being devoured by a legally patronized and
nourished demon called the FALSE CASES of HARASSMENT. We need to remember
that FALSE ALLEGATIONS of ABUSE are ABUSE. If justice is not meted to those
suffering innocent families trapped in such cases, we will see more and more
people like Amit Buddhiraj taking such extreme steps. Not to mention of the
pain inflicted on the parents of the boy and the girl in their dusky days,
such extreme steps are a big drain on the intellectual property of the
country. Both of them were highly placed professionals and now their lives
and career have been ruined.

I, as a law abiding citizen of India, request the president to kindly look
into the current scenario of the implementation of marital laws, which being
highly gender biased are highly misused by unscrupulous people to their
criminalist advantages. Due to the undue sentimental balance of the
legislative and executive machinery towards a particular class of women,
such laws like 498A, Domestic Violence have become a handy tool to convert
marriage into a business opportunity. Such practices need to be stopped,
condemned and the abusers deemed to be punished to deter other people from
fraying into this obnoxious alley of LEGAL CRIMES.

I urge the Honorable President of India, to take up this matter seriously
and save the Indian Family from dying a premature and unnatural death.

RENUKA JI PLEASE READ - TOI

2008-03-25T10:16:00.002+05:30

Teenager on pill delivers in toilet

Radha Sharma TNN

Ahmedabad: In a freak case that underlines the need for compulsory sex education in schools, a class XI girl who used an emergency contraceptive pill to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, and was at peace with herself, recently delivered a 3-kg baby in the toilet bowl. Apparently, she was plump and had no clue that she was pregnant.
Doctors at VS Hospital here were shocked when the girl, who was admitted to the hospital recently after she delivered the child in the toilet of her home, told them that she never realised she was pregnant.
She told the doctors that she thought she had taken care of the possibility of being pregnant by popping an emergency contraceptive pill within three days of having unprotected sex with a boy she had a fling with. ''The girl said she took an emergency contraceptive pill and forgot all about it. It may be a possibility that she took the pill later than the advised time period. It may also be that she may have indulged in sex even after having the pill thinking it will offer her protection later as well,'' said attending gynaecologist Rajal Thaker.
Thaker, who has taken sex education lectures with over 3,500 girls in Ahmedabad, apart from imparting sex education to visuallychallenged girls from all over the state, concedes that this case lays strong emphasis on the urgent need of re-introducing compulsory sex education to school children which was recently scrapped by the state government following protests from certain sections.
''The case also shows the complete breakdown on communication in nuclear families where the parents, who are also educated, did not notice that the girl was pregnant for the whole of nine months,'' says Thaker.

Daughter accuses Bihar MLA of molestation

2008-03-25T09:59:00.003+05:30

Daughter accuses Bihar MLA of molestation

By Giridhar Jha in Patna

A BHARATIYA Janata Party legislator has been accused by his daughter of attempting to outrage her modesty in Aurangabad district while another girl was killed and then raped by her father in Patna. In a written complaint to the police, Kamala Devi, 32, alleged that her father, Aurangabad MLA Ramadhar Singh, tried to rape her on Holi day. Kamala is the president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal's district women's cell, but she insists that there is no politics behind it. In her complaint, Kamala said she met her father near Dabura More who asked her to sit in his white Scorpio. " As soon as I sat in the vehicle, he started threatening and abusing me," she alleged. She said her father misbehaved with her and attempted to rape her but she raised an alarm and somehow managed to escape. The police are investigating into the matter. Reports said Kamala had launched a relentless campaign against her father and had levelled many allegations against him in the last one year. This was the first time, however, that she had hurled such a personal slur on her father. Sources said Kamala's husband, Arun Kumar, was recently named as a suspect in a murder case in which a local BJP leader's kin was allegedly involved. She reportedly suspected her father's hand in it and her charges could be motivated by that incident. The legislator brushed aside his daughter's allegations saying it was the fallout of a political rivalry. " How can a father do such a thing to his daughter?" Singh asked. Krishna Sao from Naubatpur in Patna district, however, did worse; he killed his daughter in a fit of rage and then raped her. In a confessional statement to the police, Sao said that his school- going daughter was in love with a youth named Dhananjay and refused to end the relationship despite his warnings. Sao said on March 17, he got so angry that he strangled her to death and then raped her. The police said Sao disposed of her body and then reported that she had been kidnapped. But there were inconsistencies in his statements. The police took him in custody and he confessed to his crime. Sao is already an accused in another murder case. In another incident at Bansi Batranha village in Gopalganj district, a man chopped off the nose of his nine- year- old daughter to offer it to the goddess as part of a tantric ritual. The police have arrested Swaminath Baitha and sent him to jail. The girl was admitted in a critical condition to the local hospital where the doctors referred her to Gorakhpur hospital. giridhar. jha@ mailtoday. in

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SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT WORK: A HEALTH HAZARD FOR WOMEN

2008-03-25T09:58:00.002+05:30

SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT WORK: A HEALTH HAZARD FOR WOMEN

Would one ever think that sexual harassment at the workplace could be regarded as one of the most prevalent health hazards of work and that it could play havoc with your health? The National Commission for Women reports that sexual harrassment is on the rise at the workplace, and is increasingly being reported by women as they become more assertive and aware of their rights. Here are some common jobs where women are subject to harrassment, worldwide. Nursing Profession The nursing profession is one which has seen frequent cases of sexual harassment. In a study published in AORN journal, the range of harassing behaviours nurses reported were: offensive sexual remarks unwanted physical contact unwanted nonverbal attention requests for unwanted dates sexual propositions A majority of the harassing incidents were not reported, which may be attributed to the nurses' lack of training about sexual harassment and their facilities' reporting policies and procedures. The study suggests that the high incidence of harassment in health care is related to the health care industry's polarized occupational segregation ( predominately female nurses, disproportionately high number of male physicians). Educational Institutions A Canadian based research reports sexual harassment in universities and colleges. Based on data collected by a questionnaire from 455 women, university undergraduate and graduate students and nine follow- up in- depth interviews, this study found that sexual harassment has both direct and indirect health effects, including nausea and sleeplessness, loss of self- esteem, fear and anger, feelings of helplessness and isolation, as well as nervousness and depression. Across the world sexual harassment at work is not unheard of. Just hidden in the closet, as most cases just go unreported.

ANY WINNER IN THE GROUP ANY CASE

2008-03-25T04:26:00.004+05:30

Rinku Sachdeva Dies Again Online

2008-03-25T04:21:00.002+05:30

http://desicritics.org/2008/03/24/111106.php

Rinku Sachdeva Dies Again Online

March 24, 2008
Deepti Lamba

Rinku Sachdeva was allegedly suffocated to death by a pillow. Thereafter Amit Budhiraja allegedly hung himself to death. She was a Scorpio and he a Leo. She was from Mumbai and he a Delhiite. She was an outgoing Sikhni and he a Punjabi boy.

Their marriage was doomed from the beginning. He wanted perfection in love and she - who knows what she wanted. She is dead and he allegedly killed her. He claimed she had an affair but who knows?

In the online world, she has been tried and found guilty. They believe she was a promiscuous c$%#*& who deserved what came to her. They have murdered her again - believed his six page rant verbatim, where he alleged her ongoing affair, that her immoral potential blackmail of 498a drove him to kill her and commit suicide on a Holi night.

All of this is his side of the story but what was her side of the story? Does any one care? Was he an obsessive, conservative, insanely jealous man, blaming his marital troubles on platonic friends?

Could that not be her version? How are we to know? Even if she did fall for someone else, was that reason enough to kill?
Crime of passion or pre-meditated murder - no one deserves to die when it comes to matters of the heart.

Two young lives snuffed, grieving families left behind and plenty of fodder left for the online world to moralize, pontificate and deride.

Pay Commission RECOMMENDATION

2008-03-25T04:19:00.002+05:30

http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/25/stories/2008032559701200.htm

Another major recommendation is that disciplinary action should be taken against any employee under the Service Conduct Rules if found guilty of violation of Domestic Violence (Prevention) Act

KNOW YOUR CANDIDATE

2008-03-25T04:12:00.005+05:30

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080325/jsp/jharkhand/story_9030919.jsp

Bride rejects dowry shark

2008-03-25T04:12:00.004+05:30

Bride rejects dowry shark

OUR LEGAL REPORTER

Calcutta, March 24: The high court today rejected the anticipatory bail plea of a schoolteacher whose dowry demands went up as the wedding approached after the bride-to-be said she wouldn't accept him as her husband.

Sagar Das, 37, had asked for an extra Rs 1 lakh two days before marriage.

Mita Porey told the court she was convinced that he was after her father's money.

Police can now arrest Sagar, against whom Mita's father Jugal Kishore had lodged a complaint in Ghatal, West Midnapore.

Immediately after the February 25 marriage was fixed, Sagar had demanded Rs 51,000. "Jugal Kishore paid the money and promised to gift furniture and jewellery worth Rs 1.5 lakh to his daughter," said Pinaki Bhattacharya, the counsel appearing for the state.

On February 23, the primary school teacher's mother told Jugal Kishore that her son wanted Rs 1 lakh more before the wedding.

The furniture and jewellery were ready and invitation cards had been sent but the Dases cancelled the wedding. The father of the bride went to the police on March 1 and Sagar prayed for anticipatory bail in the high court.

Before the division bench of Justices D.P. Sengupta and P.K. Deb, Sagar's lawyer said his client was ready to withdraw the demand for Rs 1 lakh and marry Mita if his petition was granted.

"Can't we try and find an amicable solution to the problem?" lawyer Sekhar Basu asked.

Mita stood up, pointed a finger at Sagar and said: "I don't want to marry him."

WHY WE LOOSE OUR CASES (SORRY TO SAY)

2008-03-25T00:59:00.002+05:30

no knowledge of law
finacial problem
cheat by lawyer
job problem
time problem
many responsibilities like mother father brother sister

RE: [SaveIndianFamily] WHY WE LOOSE OUR CASES (SORRY TO SAY)

2008-03-25T00:14:00.002+05:30

Main reason, i think is:
Cruelty of our wives, their families, supporters of our wives and last but not least--feminists.

They are so cruel and are ready to play dramas to any extent to prove that their false cases are true somehow. Brutal most of the ones are the ones who cry in Court of Law and show their Crocodile tears to every one,
Crocodile Tears by the brutal women--is the reason why we, men loose cases.

WHY WE LOOSE OUR CASES (SORRY TO SAY)

2008-03-25T00:01:00.002+05:30

no knowledge of law
finacial problem
cheat by lawyer
job problem
time problem
many responsibilities like mother father brother sister

HEADS AND TALES

2008-03-24T23:18:00.001+05:30

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/opinions/2892122.cms

Crime In And Around Hyderabad

2008-03-24T23:17:00.003+05:30

http://www.siasat.com/english/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=254942&Itemid=79&cattitle=Hyderabad

Two dowry deaths in the city

Hyderabad, March 24 (Siasat News): Two separate incidents of dowry death took place in the suburban areas of the city.

According to the police, a man A Raju set her wife A Chandrakala ablaze at Narguda village of Shamshabad, as she did not pay the dowry demanded by her husband. Police said that they were married in April 2007. Rs. 50,000/- was promised at the time of the marriage and Rs. 20,000/- was immediately paid.

However, Raju was demanding the balance Rs. 30,000/-. When Chandrakala could not meet his demand, Raju set her afire. The second incident took place at Hudasai Nagar in Vanasthalipuram where a woman R Sravanthi committed suicide by hanging.

Police said that she was married to one R Santosh in 2005. However, her in-laws were harassing her for more dowry since last few months. She could not bear their harassment and took the extreme step. In the meantime, Sravanthi's parents have alleged that her in-laws murdered her.

Childless woman commit suicide

Hyderabad, March 24 (Siasat News): A woman Tahmeen Tahseen Fatima committed suicide as she remained issueless after her marriage.

Inspector Madannapet Ashok Chakravarthy said that Fatima, 28, was married to a trader Syed Yaqoob Hussein ten years ago and both were living at the star apartment in Dhobighat. She was very upset, as the couple had no children even after the ten long years of marriage.

She took the extreme step of killing herself and consumed acid some one and half months back. However, she was fighting with her life in a private hospital and finally could not survive. Police Madannapet is further investigating.

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Contempt of court and the media

2008-03-24T23:16:00.005+05:30

http://www.indlawnews.com/display.aspx?3537

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Is West Bengal Indias pleasure oasis?

2008-03-24T23:16:00.004+05:30

http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=131284

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Contempt of court and the media

2008-03-24T16:58:00.003+05:30

http://www.indlawnews.com/display.aspx?3537

The problems raised by trial by media involve a tug of war between two conflicting principles free press and free trial. The freedom of the press stems from the right of the public in a democracy to be involved on the issues of the day, which affect them.[1] People cannot adequately influence the decisions that affect their lives unless they can be adequately informed on the facts and arguments relevant to the decisions. Much of such fact-finding and argumentation necessarily has to be conducted vicariously, the public press being a principal instrument. This is also the justification for investigative and campaign journalism.[2]

At the same time, the right to fair trial, uninfluenced by extraneous pressures is recognized as a basic tenet of justice. The Constitution of India[3] and the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 contain provisions aimed at safeguarding the right to fair trial. Restrictions are imposed on the discussion or publication of matters relating to the merits of a case pending before a Court. A journalist may thus be liable for contempt of court if he publishes anything which might prejudice a fair trial or anything which impairs the impartiality of a court to decide a cause on its merits, whether the proceedings before the Court be a criminal or civil proceeding.[4]

In relation to freedom of speech and expression, there are three types of contempt of court:

(a) One kind of contempt is scandalizing the court itself;

(b) There may likewise be a contempt of court in abusing parties who are concerned in causes in the court;

However, the above classifications are by no means exhaustive. Very broadly speaking, the conduct may refer to anything that tends to bring the administration of justice into disrepute or to obstruct or interfere with the due course of justice.[5]

Pre-trial publicity
Sensationalized journalism has also had an impact on the judiciary. For example, in upholding the imposition of the death penalty on Mohammed Afzal for the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, Justice P. Venkatarama Reddi stated, (t)he incident, which resulted in heavy casualties, had shaken the entire nation and the collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender.[6]
A media trial began almost immediately after Afzals arrest. Only one week after the attack, on 20 December 2001, the police called a press conference during the course of which Afzal incriminated himself in front of the national media. The media played an excessive and negative role in shaping the public conscience before Afzal was even tried.[7]

Similarly, S.A.R. Geelani, one of Afzals co-defendants in the Parliament attack case, was initially sentenced to death for his alleged involvement despite an overwhelming lack of evidence. Large sections of the Indian media portrayed him as a dangerous and trained terrorist. On appeal, the Delhi High Court overturned Geelanis conviction and described the prosecutions case as at best, absurd and tragic.[8]

Protection of the rights of the accused

Taking exception to the media interviewing witnesses and commenting on cases during trial, the Law Commission has recommended changes in the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 to protect the rights of the accused and ensure the proper conduct of trial in its latest report titled Trial by Media,[9] headed by Justice M Jagannadha Rao. It has also emphasised the need to sensitise journalists through proper training in certain aspects of the law. What is going on in the media may indeed be highly objectionable. Merely because it is tolerated by the courts, it may not cease to be contempt, the Commission noted in the report. The Commission said: In our country the lack of knowledge of law of contempt currently shows that there is extensive coverage of interviews with witnesses. The panel said that this is highly objectionable even under the current law of contempt if such interviews are conducted after the chargesheet is filed. We are of the view that there is considerable interference with the due administration of criminal justice and this will have to remedied by Parliament, the report said.[10]

In its report submitted to the Government, the Commission said, Today there is a feeling that in view of the extensive use of the television and cable services, the whole pattern of publication of news has changed and several such publications are likely to have a prejudicial impact on the suspects, accused, witnesses and even judges and in general on the administration of justice.[11] The report said, according to our law, a suspect/accused is entitled to a fair procedure and is presumed to be innocent till proved guilty in a court of law. None can be allowed to prejudge or prejudice his case by the time it goes to trial.[12]

It said that publications, which interfered or tend to interfere with the administration of justice would amount to criminal contempt under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 and if in order to preclude such interference, the provisions of that Act impose reasonable restrictions on freedom of speech, such restrictions would be valid.

The report noted that at present, under Section 3 (2) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 such publications would be contempt only if a chargesheet had been filed in a criminal case. The Commission has suggested that the starting point of a criminal case should be from the time of arrest of an accused and not from the time of filing of the charge sheet. In the perception of the Commission such an amendment would prevent the media from prejudging or prejudicing the case.

The United States and Australia both have stringent provisions regulating media trials, and the solutions that are envisaged to the damage caused to the right to a fair trial of the accused range from sequestering of the judge/jury for the duration of the trial, to transferring trials to more neutral jurisdictions, to declaring mistrials and acquitting accused persons, and in extreme cases, even barring further criminal complaints against an accused whose character has been so tarnished by media scrutiny that it would be impossible for him to be given a fair trial. In India, the Press Council of India does have regulations concerning reporting of sub judice matters, but a violation of these norms will only call for sanction against the media organization and will not necessarily ensure justice to the accused. At present, in India, the impossibility of a fair trial for an accused can possibly be a ground for transfer of cases to another jurisdiction. The Supreme Court has come down on trials by media, especially in dowry cases, where public sympathy is clearly with the victim and her family, and outpours of public outrage against the errant husband and his family easily find place in local publications.

In M P Lohia v. State of West Bengal[13], Justice Santosh Hegde of the Supreme Court felt compelled to note the disturbing factor. The case concerned the death of one Chandni in February, 2002 and the complaint in this regard was registered, the investigation was in progress and the application for grant of anticipatory bail had been disposed of by the High Court of Calcutta when an article has appeared in a magazine called Saga titled Doomed by Dowry written by one Kakoli Poddar based on her interview of the family of the deceased. Justice Hegde remarked that all material narrated therein are those that may be used in the forthcoming trial, and was convinced that they would certainly interfere with the administration of justice.

The need for openness

There is a concern that the above regulations may result in the restricted reporting of important cases. In the interests of ensuring fair trials, the media in UK for instance have restricted the reporting of terrorist trials for long periods. Conviction following a fair trial is a major weapon to combat terrorism.

The case with family courts is also similar. There is a feeling that the workings of, and the decisions made in family courts are too secretive. The argument runs that without increased openness there can be no confidence in the workings of the family court, and therefore no confidence in the process or the outcomes. To a consultation in the UK on the issue, the Newspaper Society wrote that:
We fully support the proposal that the media should be allowed to attend ALL family courts as of right and the principle of a general presumption of openness must be the established if public confidence and accountability is to be achieved. The role of the media as representative of the public particularly in relation to attendance at court proceedings is well established and understood.
Media groups argue that the solution lies in letting journalists in as of right to act as a proxy for the public. To restrict them would be to deny the public and mean that miscarriages of justice could go unrecognised and unreported.
The contempt law is as old as Common Law itself. The Court, however, will act only where justice is jeopardized by a gross and/or unfounded attack on the Judges, where the attack is calculated to obstruct or destroy the judicial process. The judiciary cannot be immune from criticism. Judges and courts are alike open to criticism, and if reasonable argument or expostulation is offered against any judicial act as contrary to law or the public good, no Court could or would treat that as contempt of court. It is only the scurrilous abuse on a Judge in his character as a Judge, which would be actionable under the Contempt of Courts Act. The freedom of the press and the independence of the judiciary are two of the most important indices of democracy in a country. It is essential to preserve both. Pliable press and subservient judiciary are the first step in the process of extinguishment of democratic lights[14].
(Ritu Tiwary is a student at HNLU in Raipur. Aju John is an editor at Indlaw.)

[1] A.G. v. Times Newspaper, (1973) 3 All ER 54, 1973 INDLAW HL 10.

[2] Id.

[3] The Constitution of India, arts. 129 and 215.

[4] Bathina v. State of Madras, (1952) SCR 425.

[5] J.R. Parashar v. Prashant Bhushan, (2001) 6 SCC 735, 2001 INDLAW SC 20736.

[6] Trial by Media at http://www.hrdc.net/sahrdc/ (March 3, 2008).

[7] Id.

[8] Id.

[9] See, Trial by Media: Free Speech v. Free Trial Criminal Procedure (Amendments to the Contempt of Court Act, 1971), 200^th Law Commission Report, 2006.

[10] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2352074.cms.

[11] Supra note 24.

[12] Id.

[13] 2005 INDLAW SC 71.

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APNEY KYA KHOYA / KYA PAYA (SORRY TO SAY)

2008-03-24T13:44:00.003+05:30

in my point of view
i lost my dignity
i lost my self respect
i lost my social respect
i lost my career
i lost my promotion
i lost my child
i lost my grandpa
and many more

but
i got sif
i got sif members friend true and faithful
i got how to fight with the law
i got how to tackle the law
i got how to win the case
i got how to make advisable
and many more

now ur turn please

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Case

2008-03-24T08:17:00.001+05:30

UP officials

2008-03-24T07:48:00.002+05:30

UP police@up.nic.in, perpol@up.nic.in, adgkarmik@up.nic.in, humanrightshq@up.nic.in, homeup@up.nic.in,
igzoneald@up.nic.in, igzoneknr@up.nic.in, igzonegkr@up.nic.in, igzonelkw@up.nic.in, igzonemrt@up.nic.in,
igzonebry@up.nic.in, igzonevns@up.nic.in, digraga@up.nic.in, digrald@up.nic.in, digrknr@up.nic.in,
digrfzd@up.nic.in, digrgkr@up.nic.in, digrjsi@up.nic.in, digrlkw@up.nic.in, digrmrt@up.nic.in, digrbry@up.nic.in,
digrmdd@up.nic.in, digrvns@up.nic.in, digrazh@up.nic.in, digrckd@up.nic.in, sspaga@up.nic.in,
sspaih@up.nic.in, sspald@up.nic.in, spaya@up.nic.in, spazh@up.nic.in, spbbk@up.nic.in, spbpt@up.nic.in,
spbla@up.nic.in, spbna@up.nic.in, sspbry@up.nic.in, spbsi@up.nic.in, spbrh@up.nic.in, spbjr@up.nic.in,
spblr@up.nic.in, sspbdn@up.nic.in, sspbhr@up.nic.in, spcdi@up.nic.in, spdoa@up.nic.in, sspeth@up.nic.in,
sspewh@up.nic.in, sspfzd@up.nic.in, spfgh@up.nic.in, spfhr@up.nic.in, spfrz@up.nic.in, spgzr@up.nic.in,
sspgzb@up.nic.in, spgda@up.nic.in, sspgkr@up.nic.in, sphmr@up.nic.in, sphts@up.nic.in, sphdi@up.nic.in,
spjln@up.nic.in, spjnr@up.nic.in, sspjsi@up.nic.in, spknd@up.nic.in, sspknr@up.nic.in, spknj@up.nic.in,
spksi@up.nic.in, spksn@up.nic.in, spltp@up.nic.in, spkhi@up.nic.in, ssplkw@up.nic.in, spmba@up.nic.in,
spmrj@up.nic.in, sspmpi@up.nic.in, spmau@up.nic.in, sspmta@up.nic.in, sspmrt@up.nic.in, spmzr@up.nic.in,
sspmdd@up.nic.in, sspzuf@up.nic.in, spppbt@up.nic.in, sppbh@up.nic.in, sprbi@up.nic.in, sprpr@up.nic.in,
sspsrr@up.nic.in, spsha@up.nic.in, spsdr@up.nic.in, spstp@up.nic.in, spsbr@up.nic.in, spsrn@up.nic.in,
spkbn@up.nic.in, spsvi@up.nic.in, spstr@up.nic.in, spuao@up.nic.in, spunnao@rediffmail.com,
sspvns@up.nic.in

Mechanism to check sexual harassment in armed forces

2008-03-23T23:47:00.003+05:30

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2339769.cms

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An orphanage in cause of saving the girl child in Tamil Nadu

2008-03-23T23:46:00.002+05:30

http://www.newkerala.com/one.php?action=fullnews&id=38736

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Photographing woman's legs not harassment: SKorean court

2008-03-23T23:44:00.002+05:30

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_Cetera/Photographing_womans_legs_not_harassment_/articleshow/2891237.cms

/

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Renuka Chowdhury Accused of Fudging "Dowry Deaths" Statistics

2008-03-23T23:42:00.002+05:30

http://desicritics.org/2008/03/16/091618.php

One-year-old boy married to dog in Orissa

2008-03-23T23:40:00.004+05:30

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/oneyearold-boy-married-to-dog-in-orissa/61788-13.html

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Reconciliation

2008-03-23T10:57:00.001+05:30

Marriage as an institution has always been highly placed in the Indian sociological scenario. It has been always been seen as the first step towards settled life and laying the foundation of family. But as they say, “All human troubles start from the inability to sit quietly in a room,” this so called sacred institution has its own dark side. Where, on one hand, marriage provides a platform to two individuals coming from totally different backgrounds and albeit different mindsets to come together, understand each other and be each others support in life, financially, morally, spiritually, emotionally and physically, it has its own uninvited share of problems. The most talked of and debatable of the problems associated with marriage is DOWRY. Sometimes the girls’ family give dowry as a pre-assumption that the boys’ family shall keep the girl happy and sometimes it is seen from the boys side as compensation to take care of the girl. With increasing reports from the media about the torture meted out to the Indian Daughter-in-law about dowry harassment and deaths due to it, the Govt. of India formulated the Dowry Prohibition Act in 1961 and introduced Section 498A in the Indian Penal Code in the year 1983, wherein harassment of the ‘wife’ for dowry was named as a criminal offence and extremely strict measures were provided within its ambit to protect the ‘Married Woman’ from the clutches of money-hungry dowry demanders. It just required a written unverified complaint from the girl or any relative on behalf of the girl to file a criminal case against the ‘HUSBAND’ and his family members and they would be arrested immediately and sent to judicial custody until either they were bailed out or chargesheeted and trial ensued. But it was a very big catch there, since the provision gave the police discretionary powers of arrest, and that too on an unverified complaint, as also filing a false complaint under this offense and leveling false accusations against the HUSBAND and his family did not attract any punishment on the girl or her parents, a lot of false complaints have started pouring in.

The police have a field day as they get a golden chance to make money from both sides for settling the dispute and the girls’ side get an upper hand as they can now extort money from the husbands’ family using the criminal case, the fear of police, arrest, and social stigma associated with jail as a weapon. Cases where money is not a prime concern, such a false case has been used by the girls’ side to get their unjust demands conceded, like staying separate from the boys’ parents, siphon boys’ hard earned money to girls’ parents if the boy is rich / well to do, or to end a relationship where the ‘expectations’ of the girl were not met, or to break a marriage to marry someone else whom the girl is in love with, or to get custody of children, and a plethora of such reasons. But it is not always the girls’ side that has to be blamed, many a times it has been found that the girls and their family have been ill-advised and misguided by unscrupulous and insincere lawyers who are out to make their own money. There have been cases where the judges also force the boy to compromise. And in such cases and many more, the girls repent for having taken such a step and they hope for reconciliation and want to arrive at a compromise. And so we have the next obvious big question, “What should the man do, reconcile or not with a wife who has a filed a false case of dowry harassment?” So we will take a peek at that possibility, its chances of occurrence and possible / fearful repercussions.

If the boy decided to take the girl back, then on one side it looks like a marriage has been saved and both of them have given a second thought to the relationship despite considerable differences and this shall highlight the importance of the institution of marriage as also shall throw light on the necessity of tolerance, acceptance and adjustment to make a relation work. Also it shall save the courts from being overburdened with another case and both the families from the headache of another marriage. In case the couple had children, they would be spared the tragedy of a single parent, as for a successful upbringing the child needs both the parents as has been corroborated by a study in US that children brought up by single mom have a increasing tendency and majority of them turning out to be criminals when they grow up. It will also set an example to others about how a relation can be saved.

Having said that, let us have a look at the other side of the coin. It has to kept in mind that the dowry case is false and the allegations has been fabricated and a severe breach of trust has been committed by the ‘wife’, leading to severe deterioration of the economical, emotional, and reputational health of the HUSBAND and his family. If a woman can walk into the police station and levy false accusations on the husband and forces him to concede to her ‘DEMAN DS’ deemed as ‘JUST’ by an explanation sounding logic to her ears, taking undue advantage of a law that has been made to protect the ‘WEAKER’ women, this thought of bringing such a woman back into one’s life shall invite justifiable contention. When already she has crossed the line, what is the guarantee that she will not cross it again or she will not cross it again with a larger fury? The first time she filed the complaint in a fit of immaturity and had not done her homework properly and therefore could not get what she wanted and thus offers the bait of compromise to be able to enter the house again and plan a proper route to jail for her husband and her in-laws. She will collect evidence in her favor, humiliate in-laws and instigate them to create a scene of violence, for when a woman gets vindictive she gets very dangerous and ruins everyone around her, including self. She can forge drama that there has been attempt to her life and limb by any means like, cutting her hands, or setting her sari on fire and dousing it and portraying it as act to murder her and all she has to do is to utter the word, ‘DOWRY’ in front of the police and the in-laws are behind bars and in deep shit, even if they are innocent and the woman shall have the power to make them dance at her whims and fancies.

Bringing her back, would also empower her by granting access to your possessions (financial instruments, emotions, attachments) to a serpentine creature, who can misuse them to the core. It will set a bad example in a society encouraging other women to resort to such tactics and rule their husband’s life and family. We need to keep in mind that no law can run a household and once the petty marital discords have been shaded legally, the relationship has been murdered in all practical aspects and it is just a matter of time before it is dead on paper. Even if the couple has children and they reconcile for the children, it will be very hard for the couple to stay peacefully, the grudge shall always remain, howsoever the husband is mature and understanding and those children shall always see their parents fighting and will fail to develop faith in the institution of marriage. Expectations should have a limit. If the woman expects that she will keep dancing and choreographing her husband’s and in-laws’ movements and ultimately when she fails, she should be forgiven and provided one more chance, then it has to borne in mind that the MAN had been tagged a criminal for no fault of his and he and his family has gone through a stage of tremendous trauma, stress and unwanted, unforeseen and uninvited hardships, all thanks to the false complaint filed by the wife. It involves monetary loss (perhaps recoverable), emotional draining (irrecoverable and leaves incurable mental scars), reputational assassination (recoverable only to a certain extent, and that too depends on how the individual handles it and perceives it). There has to be accountability for such huge losses and inflictions and effective means to curb such a menace.

With this note, I leave it to the readers to decide whether they would like to reconcile and die a death every day or fight back the menace, contribute their bit to create awareness and save other families and emerge an overall winner in life. I will end this article with a final analogy. A wife who has filed a false criminal case on her husband to settle petty scores and money extortion can be compared with this situation. Imagine someone stuck badly in city traffic and has an urgent nature's call to attend to and at the same time feeling thirsty and wants to have water. The water that was present in the body has been marked as waste and he needs to get rid of it and at the same time he needs some fresh water to quench his thirst. As long as the waste water remains in his body, he will feel uneasy and those toxins in the waste water shall start ruining his system slowly. He needs water, but cannot use the water present in his body; he has to get rid of it. The waste water is a wife who files such a case. In order to carry on in life properly, the man has to get rid of such a wife as soon as possible. The fresh water is new life for the man, the definition and demographics of which are context dependent and individual defined.

Consequences of IPC 498A

2008-03-23T10:51:00.001+05:30

First time readers refer to IPC 498A – The most draconian law for reference and continuity.

Having had discussed the features and loopholes of IPC 498A and some of its possible areas of misuse, we will now proceed to discuss the consequences of filing a FALSE DOWRY CASE on the MAN, his friends and families. If for a while we assume that the law is not misused, then also this serves a very lesser purpose as conviction under this law is very difficult, for it needs to be proved the said HARASSMENT for the UNLAWFUL DEMAND was of such nature that it was of danger to the life and limb of the complainant or that it drove the complainant to suicide to the satisfaction of the court beyond reasonable doubt. So we have terms like “satisfaction of the court” and “beyond reasonable doubt” which are highly contentious and interpretation dependent and also difficult to PROVE, DISPROVE or term the accusations and allegations as NOT PROVED.

Hence even if the case is true, justice is hard to be delivered. And the case being true, it is the girl here who has been harassed and yet the chances of she getting justice will be very meek. And for a false case, there is no question of imparting justice to the girl as no harassment as alleged has ever taken place and real justice should be meted out to the boy’s family which never happens in a great country like India which assumes that all daughters-in-law are true to the core and all in-laws of complaining and cribbing girls have never uttered a word of truth in their whole life. As has been repeatedly highlighted that filing a false case is gross misuse of IPC 498A and we have also seen even if the case is true, justice is far to be sought.

The retrospective effects of such a case are far reaching and case based. Firstly it is a lifetime blow to the husband, a stab in the back from someone as close to heart as SPOUSE, LIFE PARTNER. Hence the moral and emotional setback is always there. To add to it, the stereotypic and orthodox mindset of the society that a MAN must have done something TERRIBLY BAD to deserve this kind of treatment. This is a result of age long hypnotization and mass brain wash by the feminists to lead into the whole world believing that women are VICTIMS for no fault of theirs and men are PERPETRATORS of violence without rhyme and reason. With such a one – sided ubiquitously stereotypic mentality prevailing world over and especially within and amongst the legislative and executive machinery, it becomes almost next to impossible for the MAN to prove his innocence, in spite of the fact that he possesses evidences to support his claim otherwise. Such an atmosphere can have wide and varied effects. We shall study those under two categories.

Men who have not yet fathered their offspring: -

For these men, the story is relatively simpler since they do not have the emotional kickback of a child. Also the fact that they have been saved from fathering a new born from a devilish woman gives much solace to them which can transform into the much needed courage to ensue the ever – impending fight. But depending on individuality and circumstances, these FALSE CASES can either kill the manhood or give it a push. Moreover men falsely implicated in such cases seem to lose faith in the institution of marriage completely, especially if the marriage is less than a year old before the case is filed. Such euphoria in the society can lead to severe and irrevocable deterioration of the trust and faith on marriage, the institution which has been the foundation of family life since time immemorial. It is not only those men who are themselves directly involved in such cases but also other unmarried men around such men like their younger brothers, first cousins and close friends who watch the MAN go through the abuse, tend to loose the confidence on MARRIAGE, and refrain from tying the knot. They tend to develop a sense of insecurity getting married as they see rendering themselves liable to be made easy scapegoats of this LEGAL TERRORISM. Moreover they don’t really need to get married to be embroiled in the abuse, as any of their brother’s or cousin’s or for that matter any friends’ wife can also drag them into a false case saying these men were hand in gloves with her husband in ‘torturing her for dowry’.

This view holding true for men who resolve to fight the misuse, we will now see the effects of such a false case on the MAN who gives in to the misuse and either accepts the DEMANDS of the girl or settles for money. Such men not only loose their self-esteem and sense of manhood, leading the life of a henpecked husband but also carry the self-remorse and guilt of setting a bad example and contributing to the spread of misuse indirectly. Whereas the blame for such a conduct on part of the MAN cannot be directly attributed to him as has been already iterated that - “in majority of the cases, the metamorphosis of a happily married man to a legal fighter dies prematurely and the matter ends with a monetary compromise” – the reasons for the death of the metamorphosis is another big topic over which volumes of analysis can be represented. For now we look into the effects of the death of the metamorphosis. And such a man who has conceded to the demands, and has not yet fathered an offspring, when actually does so, cannot set an example of a brave MAN and the offspring shall grow up to see a henpecked man and will carry the traits as such. If she is a girl, she will expect her prospective husband also to be such and if he is a boy, he will realize this as a way of life. So we see a wrong trend being set in the society where giving in to the wife’s illogical demands is considered LIBERATION of WOMEN and not doing so results in her HARASSMENT for which we have the law called IPC 498A, and thus a vicious circle is created wherein the misuse self-feeds itself and grows to be a self-nourished monster devouring the demographics and essences of a sane and awake society.

Another ill-effect of such a false case is the wreckage and deterioration of the intellectual property of the country. It has been observed as a norm that these cases are filed to extort money from high earning people in the corporate world especially the software industry which consists of people having an elevated and sharpened intellect and a relatively higher IQ. Also such cases are filed within 5 years of marriage which means that the MAN is either in his late twenties or early thirties which is a very critical juncture of his career. Embroiling young people for an average of 5 – 7 years in such false cases, where conviction can lead to complete ruin of an illustrious career, can be a dealing and yielding blow to the intellectual property, as the man will spend his time, money and energy towards saving his skin from a stereotypically biased system which has refused to move ahead with times. The investments, read time, money and energy, that the man would have otherwise spent on more useful means is now being forced to be wasted to salvage oneself from an effort to ruin the life of the man in particular and society in general.

These were some of the effects and consequences that a false case can have on the people around and the actual victim, the MAN involved in it. Though they cater in general to men whether fathers or not, we will now proceed to look into the same for fathers in particular.

Men who have fathered their offspring: -

The battle is tougher for these people. For, in addition to fight against the legal system and prove themselves innocent for an offense they did not commit, they also need to muster courage to fight against one more thing, the natural emotion of fatherhood as these unfortunate men are deprived of the time they deserve with their children not only by their vindictive wives but also by the judicial system. Long live the Indian Judicial System, which still believes that only mothers can take better care of children and also force the fathers to stay away from their offspring. The judiciary neither believes in shared and joint parenting nor contesting the case on merits. And the brunt of the fallacy is borne by those fathers who not only carry the false sense of guilt of a crime NOT committed, but also have to kill their fatherhood for feeding a marriage devouring monster called the FALSE DOWRY CASE.

There have been umpteen number of instances wherein the fathers are not only blackmailed in the name of their children but also are forced to compromise for the well-being of the child and in spite of the compromise being undertaken, the men are deprived of their child’s love. And in such cases it is not only the men who suffer, innocent silent sufferer’s cries go unheard who are not only unaware of the system, but also suffer at the hands of a vindictive woman who uses the child as a bargain tool to get her illegal way out legally. And the saddest part of the whole bitter truth is that the whole drama is passed off in the legislative atmosphere as WOMEN LIBERATION and EMPOWERMENT OF THE WEAKER SEX.

Sometimes MEN are just threatened of false cases to be lodged against them in case they make an attempt to meet their children. The Indian Penal Code has provided for visitation rights to Men to meet their children, who are separated from their spouses, but it is a long legal battle for the men before they get visitation rights which is again just for a couple of hours on weekends and that too mostly in the court premises where the MEN are not even allowed to bring anything for their children. If they make an attempt to increase meeting hours of visitation they are again threatened with false cases. All this is a toll on the man already but these women and the system fail to notice and understand that how a child who is deprived of the parental love, that he / she not only deserves but also needs very much for a normal upbringing, develops deep and irrevocable mental scars in his / her early days which are lifelong and play major role in the development of the child’s personality and behavioral pattern.

It is not the only bitter fact that the child and the father are not allowed to meet, the time the child is with the mother, she brainwashes the child against the father. There have been cases where the child does not even recognize their own father and has designated them as UNCLES. The child will grow with a falsely imbibed and viciously superimposed sense of hatred and non – belonging towards his / her father and day the child becomes a father, in case the child is a male, will be non – responsive and indifferent towards his children for he as a child was only shown that a MAN is indifferent towards his children. He was never shown the suffering his FATHER went through in staying separate from his own prodigy for no fault on his part except for the fact that he was a responsible, loving and caring man.

These are just some of the consequences of a false case on the child, the MAN and his friends and relatives. There are many far – reaching consequences of such cases which will affect the social, familial, and the economic health of the Indian society in general and individuals in particular. All those who are right now patronizing this misuse and allowing it to spread in order to realize their ulterior motives of power hunger and political urge need to understand that they are slowly digging their own grave and there shall befall a day in their lives when there won’t be a single soul to cremate their rotten bodies. All those who are undergoing the misuse being its victims and are standing up to fight it shall turn out to be better human beings, who could turn an obstacle in their lives into an opportunity.

Anti-Feminism: What Is It?

2008-03-23T10:44:00.003+05:30

http://globalpolitician.com/24321-feminism-anti-feminism

Anti-Feminism: What Is It?

Pranav S. Atit - 3/24/2008

It is uncertain as to what anti-feminism is or it can also be said that it is uncertain as to what feminism is. Although, it is ambiguous as to when anti-feminism originated, it originated due to adverse views against feminism. The origin of feminism in turn originated due to the fact that women traditionally had been regarded as inferior to men, physically and intellectually. Both the law and the feminist movement, however, was concretely established when an issue for declaration of independence for women , demanding full legal parity, equal compensation and the right to vote was pressed for in the constitution in 1848, in North America. theology had ordered their subjection. Women could not possess property in their own names, engage in business, or control the disposal of their children or even of their own. The earliest feminist document that can be traced is that by Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women. There were pleadings of larger opportunities for women by Thomas Hobbes, James Locke, Mary Astell and others before, although they were not concrete enough to be called feminist views. In the French Revolution, liberty, equality and fraternity were demanded to be applied regardless of sex. This movement was then spread to Europe. Women's demand for higher education, entrance into trades and professions, rights to property, etc., were little by little conceded. It was then in 1946 that a UN Commission on the Status of Women was established to secure equal political, economical and educational opportunities for women. In India, the feminist movement too started in the nineteenth century due to malpractices rendered against women such as sati and feminists like Ram Mohan Roy taking steps to remove these malpractices.

The feminism in this era was, however, restricted to eradicate the suppression of women. The feminist movement achieved its aims and now seeks higher status for women than for men. Then emerged different classes of feminist and thus it lost its basic foundation. Anti- feminist ideas then arose.

It is therefore, important do define anti-feminism to know what the ideology is aims to achieve.

INTERPRETATIONS OF FEMINISM AND ANTI-FEMINISM

Feminism originated as the belief that women should not be disadvantaged by their sex, that they should be recognized as having human dignity equal to that of men, and that they should have the opportunity to live as fulfilling and freely chosen lives as men can.

Feminism comprises a number of social, cultural and political movements, theories and moral philosophies concerned with gender inequalities and discrimination against women. Feminism is also described as an ideology focusing on equality of both sexes.

Modern feminist political activists commonly campaign for a woman's right to bodily integrity and autonomy on matters such as reproductive rights, including the right to abortion, access to contraception and quality prenatal care; for protection from domestic violence; against sexual harassment and rape; for workplace rights, including maternity leave and equal pay; and against other forms of discrimination.3

Feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms. ...motivated by the quest for social justice, feminist inquiry provides a wide range of perspectives on social, cultural, and political phenomena.

Feminism is divided into liberal feminism, radical feminism, socialist feminism, post-structural feminism, black feminism, third world feminism, secular feminism, post colonial feminism, etc. Feminism has been thus divided into many varieties leaving the term to be misused and the basic purpose of the term being disregarded. While the liberal feminists assert on equality, the radical feminists aim to reconstruct the society. The scope of feminism has been expanded to such an extent that the fundamentals of feminism have been misplaced.

Anti-feminism refers to the opposition to feminism. Anti-feminism is also defined in a negative context as male-chauvinism and therefore sexism, or masculinism. It can also be said that since feminism is interested in women's rights, anti-feminism is against women's rights.

We need to take each of the components in detail to analyze if anti-feminism is in fact related to any of them or only an ideology against the negatives of feminism.

ANTI-FEMINISM v. SEXISM OR MALE CHAUVINISM AND MASCULINISM

Sexism is the discrimination against people based on their sex. It includes male and female chauvinism.

Male Chauvinism is an activity indicative of belief in the superiority of men over women.4

Arthur Schopenhauer, a male chauvinist, claimed that "woman is by nature meant to obey."

Anti-feminism has no such ideal. Anti-feminists oppose feminism.

The superiority of men over women is in fact more expounded in theories of feminists showing the sufferings of women.

As in The Second Sex Book5 by the noted feminist, Simone de Beauvoir, it is stated "Now, woman has always been man's dependant, if not his slave; the two sexes have never shared the world in equality. And even today woman is heavily handicapped, though her situation is beginning to change. Almost nowhere is her legal status the same as man's, and frequently it is much to her disadvantage. Even when her rights are legally recognized in the abstract, long-standing custom prevents their full expression in the mores". The author has made a deliberate attempt to show that there is superiority of men over women. She has also expressly stated that women are "heavily handicapped" even in the present world, although actually, women have advanced and are no more dependant on men.

Anti-feminists on the other hand propound that women have advanced in all spheres and share equal status in the world and due to this reason feminism is not required.

The view of anti-feminists that women are not dependant on men and that they share equal status, shows that this ideology is very different from male chauvinism.

Masculinism is associated with men's rights and seeks to promote them. Masculinism, like anti-feminism, is also a response to feminism, but masculinism gets into concerns of equal child rights and social issues affecting men's rights.

Masculinism is thus a counterpart of feminism and seeks to empower males in society and redress discrimination against them. Anti-feminists differ from masculists as anti-feminism is an ideology against feminism rather than an advocacy of male rights.

FEMINISM AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Feminism is automatically associated with women's rights and benefit by the people. Women's rights include physical protection and safety, emotional protection, appreciation for her being a unique human being and the right to express her opinions.

It is clamed that feminism is not against homemakers and is all about choice.

In The Second Sex, 19496 by Simone de Beauvoir it is said "A parasite sucking out the living strength of another organism...the housewife's labor does not even tend toward the creation of anything durable.... Woman's work within the home is not directly useful to society, produces nothing. The housewife is subordinate, secondary, and parasitic. It is for their common welfare that the situation must be altered by prohibiting marriage as a 'career' for woman."

Feminism is profoundly opposed to traditional conceptions of how families should be organized, since the very existence of full-time homemakers is incompatible with the views of feminism.

Years after the beginning of the modern feminist movement, there is yet an astronomically increased number of single mothers, teenage mothers and women in their 40's struggling with infertility, women are sexualized and coerced into selling themselves, there is also the triple talaq system, deterioration of family values, thus, the women do not have a sense of physical or emotional security. If feminism is a movement for women's rights and for improving the position of women, its ultimate test should be a reality check of women's well-being, security, in which case it has failed.

The foundation that anti-feminism is against women's rights is because it is automatically assumed that feminism is working toward women's rights but it is clear that it has not achieved much.

CONCLUSION

Anti-feminism is, thus, not male chauvinism or masculinism as is generally believed.

Anti-feminists point out that feminists impose tremendous pressure on traditional women by denigrating the role of a traditional housewife.

Anti-feminism as a term is also used by feminists to call others within the group of feminists who do not have the same ideas. Feminism is full of clashes and has misplaced its basic aim of women's rights.

Anti-feminists point out that feminism has not succeeded in its main goal and has diverted to other interpretations and has also been misused. There have been many cases, recently, of the misuse of the dowry laws under IPC 498A by women using them as a weapon against their husband and his family. Even a three year old child has been arrested as due to these stringent laws7. There are anti-feminist organizations like the Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF) which work as an advocacy group against the alleged abuses of domestic violence legislation in India, and provide support for men and their families who have suffered intimate partner violence or have been accused of domestic violence themselves.

Antifeminists furthermore point out cases when feminist policies and regulations are detrimental to both female self-esteem and the areas, which such policies are applied to, referring to cases of "special treatment" and lower requirements particularly in physically demanding professions, like military and rescue services. Since women who are hired are trained to handle less demanding tasks, reducing effectiveness of a unit, while still making it impossible to refuse hiring them.

Defining anti-feminism is a tough task like defining any other social ideology as there are always going to be differences of opinions.

Anti-feminism, thus, refers to the opposition against feminism in some or all of its form. As, feminists have failed to achieve their objective and have deviated from it, anti-feminism looks to prevent feminism from spreading its malpractices.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

* http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com
* http://www.saveindianfamily.org
* http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/index.htm
* http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/Development+Support/
* http://www.questia.com/SM.qst?act=search&subjects=%22Feminism--India%22&subjectsSearchType=1000
* http://live.grokker.com/grokker.html?query=anti-feminism&Yahoo=true&Wikipedia=true&numResults=250
* http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2003/07/07/2003058417
* http://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/Feminism.html

1 Sexism, http://re-xs.ucsm.ac.uk/gcsere/revision/xtianpers/chper3/page3.html (Visited on August 5, 2007)

2 Rhodes, Ron, The Debate Over Feminist Theology: Which View is Biblical http://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/Feminism.html (visited on August 3, 2007)

3 Janet Price & Margrit Shildrick, Feminist Theory and the Body: A Reader, as cited in Feminism, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism (Visited on August 5, 2007)

4 The Free Dictionary, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/male+chauvinism (Visited on August 8, 2007)

5 Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex Book,1949, http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/index.htm (Last visited on August 10, 2007)

6 Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex Book,1949, http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/index.htm (Last visited on August 10, 2007)

7 Taipei Times, Bitterness of wives leads to abuse of India's anti-dowry laws, http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2003/07/07/2003058417 (Visited on August 10, 2007)

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IPC 498A

2008-03-23T10:44:00.002+05:30

IPC 498A – The most draconian law ever framed and a provision of the Indian Penal Code highly misused till date has been conferred the honor of breaking Indian families all over the world. From a definition and layman point of view, it seems a very productive and needed law. It has defined HARASSMENT of the MARRIED WOMAN or any of her relatives, herein referred to as harassment, to meet any UNLAWFUL DEMAND by the husband and / or his relatives as a cognizable offence and if proved guilty under trial can lead to imprisonment up to 3 years and / or fine. But all is not said and done with this law. There are gory loopholes in its definition, interpretation and implementation which can have far-reaching consequences legally, ethically, morally, emotionally, socially which are detrimental to the very existence of this society, whose welfare was upheld as the basis in the framing of such a draconian provision. Sounds, strange, ironical, but is surprisingly true as well. Let us have a look at how the law qualifies itself to be placed under the contentious category of DRACONIAN LAWS. We shall start with its definition and loopholes in this article and end with its consequences in the sequel to this one. Remain hooked to this space.

IPC 498A describes the harassment as a

1) Non - Bailable

2) Cognizable

3) Non Compoundable

offence. Now let us have a look into the details of the above terms. The problems with the above aspects of IPC 498A shall be dealt with shortly.

1) Non – Bailable: As soon as the case is made prima – facie, the accused shall be arrested and kept in judicial custody and bail will be given only by a 1^st class metropolitan magistrate, which shall be at the discretion of the magistrate, who shall have the powers to look into the case and decide thereupon.

2) Cognizable: The accused shall be presumed GUILTY until PROVEN INNOCENT. It also puts the burden of proof to innocence on the accused, i.e., if someone has been accused of the UNLAWFUL DEMAND, as described above shall need to prove that such a demand HAS NOT BEEN MADE for acquittal. It also gives the power of arrest to the police without any arrest warrant, who can arrest the accused, if necessary, after proper investigation.

3) Non Compoundable: The complaint, of such a nature, leading to an offence under IPC 498A once made cannot be taken back by the complainant.

Having described the marketable features of this law, we will now proceed to study the loopholes contained therein. But before that let us see, how one can make a case under this law. All it needs is a written / verbal complaint from the MARRIED WOMAN or any of her relatives or any other person on her behalf or any Govt. recognized NGO to the local police against the in – laws of the MARRIED WOMAN. The FIR will be registered by the police after necessary investigation by the police and once the FIR is registered the accused will be required to be arrested and produced before the jurisdictional magistrate within 24 hours.

No where does the law define any provision for verifying the tenacity and genuinity of the complaint made or its nature, nor does it say anything about the penalty of filing a false case under this section and getting innocents arrested and unleashing a mayhem of mental torture on them. These two aspects compounded with the above definitive aspects of this law are the prime deciding factors which have been contributing to its wide and rampant misuse by unscrupulous people looking for an opportunity to make a cut by falsely implicating innocents and bargaining with them for money or other demands.

As it is very easy to file a case under this section, and very hard for the accused to get a bail or avoid the case being filed against them without acceding to the demands of the complainant and all the more hard to get the accused convicted given the loose interpretive definition of a plethora of terms in its definition, the most feasible route to use this law to ones criminalist advantages is to file a false complaint against husband and in – laws and get them arrested and fake a physical injury to deny bail to the accused in order to break them down morally and spiritually so that the fear of a trial in spite of being innocent, subsequent potential conviction and the killing fear of social ostracism drives them to a compromise and then the case is quashed, or settled out of the court. This seemingly lucrative possibility of the out of the court settlement, ending in a monetary transaction from the righteous to the not so righteous, is the most attractive bonanza acting as the lifeblood of the virus called FALSE DOWRY CASE which gives unscrupulous and anti – family elements to get their way ahead legally and be termed as a COMPLAINANT and HARASSED and COMPENSATED after the monetary settlement is executed.

We will now examine the loopholes in this law which has led to such a wide magnitude of misuse of this law spanning geographies, Diaspora and time zones as has been corroborated by statistics and figures by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) which show that 98 % of the cases are false and yet every four minutes a husband is arrested, every day an innocent child is arrested and every three hours a senior citizen is thrust unto jail under this section.

1) Case gets registered on a mere complaint. Nowadays it is not very uncommon that girls are forced to marry by their parents to well settled, nicely educated, high profile, wonderfully placed, money minting ATM machines, and these parents of the girls also spend lavishly in the marriage viewing it from a ROI (Returns on Investments) point of view. No sooner after the marriage the girl realizes that she is no longer happy in the marriage because the DREAMS she was shown prior to the marriage by her parents (often to convince her for the marriage) are mere DREAMS never meant to be realized, she starts complaining and the girls’ parents too think it as an opportunity knocking and start planning a case against the guy and his family. This sets the background for the case which gets registered sooner or later on a mere complaint. Since the innocent guy is busy shredding his perspiration giving his best shot at keeping his ATM machine full, he is caught totally unaware when the disaster strikes, let alone his parents who might not have dreamed such an ordeal even in the wildest of their nightmares, and in majority of the cases, the metamorphosis of a happily married man to a legal fighter dies prematurely and the matter ends with a monetary compromise.

2) As a monetary settlement is a very easy way out, even the executors of the legislative and the executive machinery in the law and order scenario, eyeing an opportunity in the available CUT, this misuse is patronized by them leading to its legalization under the false paradoxical sugar coated veil of WOMAN EMPOWERMENT and LIBERATION OF WOMEN. Also the Apex Court has now named this ongoing misuse as LEGAL TERRORISM.

3) Long live the Indian Legal System (still living in the dark ages), cases remain pending for years and are not settled, so the outcome of the trial happens like one in a million, hence conviction being next to impossible, the girls’ side in tandem with the legislative and executive machinery squeeze out the juice from the Man’s purse and have a field day.

4) The reason for initiating such a case as explained in the first point is just one of the many reasons leading to filing of such cases. There can be umpteen number of such reasons like, adultery, extra – marital affair, unwanted pregnancy, incestuous relationship of the girl with some of her family member, unexplained desire for no interference and financial control, extreme greed, leveling of petty marital discords under the devilish influence of false ego, pre-marital undisclosed mental disorders like Bipolar Disease, Borderline Personality Disorder, Delusional Disorder, Extreme mood swings to name a few. Under such scenarios it becomes very handy for the girls and their families to file a FALSE DOWRY CASE and get out of the marriage having made an obnoxious and inauspicious fortune.

5) But whatever be the reason, the undue sentimental balance of the legislative and executive machinery towards a particular class of women, the ease with which the case can be filed, the ease with which, on the basis of mere complaint of a lady, whose character and integrity remains to be questioned, one whole family ranging from small innocent children to pregnant sisters to aged, dependent and ailing parents are held at ransom and made to undergo unprecedented and uncalled for fury, wrath, torture, harassment, humiliation, character assassination, and many more atrocities, is also one of the major contributing factors to the spread of this family breaking disease called FALSE DOWRY CASE.

6) When we are small, we are taught many things by our parents, and other elders in the family. And sometimes it becomes necessary that we are punished as well to ensure that certain forbidden actions are never repeated nor a habit is made out of them. But as they say, TRUTH is STRANGER than FICTION, there is no, absolutely no punishment for filing a FALSE DOWRY CASE committing a crime of such a heinous nature. Rather, on the contrary, our honorable ministers are passing away the misuse falsely as a minor percentage and citing, “Mistake of facts” as the reason for the MINOR MISUSE they say is happening around. Will be covering more on the “Mistake of facts” syndrome in the sequel. This absence of punishment for alleging abuse falsely is the next major factor breast – feeding the monster called FALSE DOWRY CASE. The girls’ side very well knows that they have nothing to loose absolutely and hence they are all the more salivated to taste this piece of cake like a Labrador eyeing a bone.

7) On a brief note, the next reason lubricating the machinery of this racket of legal terrorism and legal extortion is the violation of the basic Human Rights Principle advocated by Amnesty International regarding the presumption of guilt on part of the accused. It says, the accused are to presumed INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY, while this law presumes GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT.

These are just some of the loopholes explained in brief which have cumulatively led to the spread of this disease called FALSE DOWRY CASE. There can be many more such loopholes which I might have missed / overlooked. Rest remains to be seen are the consequences of this misuse which will be covered shortly in the next article arriving at the nearest explorer very soon. Keep watching this space.

Re:Hema Malini to protest female foeticide through dance video

2008-03-22T23:51:00.002+05:30

Hema Malini to protest female foeticide through dance video
Posted by: "Sattu India" http://us.f501.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=sattusif@yahoo.com&Subj=sattusif
Sat Mar 22, 2008 8:36 am (PDT)
By Shweta ThakurNew Delhi, March 22 (IANS) Actress-MP Hema Malini, who once ruled Bollywood as its 'Dream Girl' and is known to live life on her own terms, is all set to launch a 15-minute dance video against female foeticide and says women must be made more aware of their rights. "Female foeticide, domestic violence and dowry are the three biggest problems that the women of our country face today. I feel very sad when I hear about the killing of female foetuses," Hema, who has two daughters, told IANS. "Since I am an artist, people come to see my dance and if I start lecturing them about female foeticide they might not listen to me. So I thought why not convey the message through dance. And we (Hema and her daughters Esha and Ahana) started working on a video condemning killing of female foetuses."The video is likely to be launched next month."We would first introduce it through our dance ballet Parampara. Depending on its impact we would convert it into a 45-minute video. The rest depends on the ministry of women and child development, how they put it on air - via TV or in theatres," said the actress who has been seen in socially relevant films like "Baghban" and "Babul".Music director Ravindra Jain, one of the most renowned composers of the 1970s who churned out hits like "Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se", "Chitchor" and "Ram Teri Ganga Maili" (1985), has given the music for the video.Nearly a million female foetuses are believed to be aborted every year in India - a country known for its male preference - which means over 2,700 girls die every day before even seeing the light of day."Along with the primary education, every girl child must be taught about women's rights, at least once a week. Because once they graduate from school they face an ugly world. Even girls from rich families go through bad experiences."Hema is the brand ambassador of Kent RO, a water purifying system and was in the capital to promote it.The veteran actress, who churned out hits like "Johnny Mera Naam", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Sholay", "Charas" and many more in the 1970s, also said that more awareness must be spread amongst women, about their rights to help them tackle social evils like dowry and domestic violence."Once women know their rights, they would have less difficulty in dealing with problems like domestic violence and dowry."Also, according to our Indian culture, after marriage women have to bear all sorts of tortures without any complaints. But it is high time women came out of it. Every woman must feel proud to be a woman."On the film front, Hema wasn't very happy when director Ram Gopal Varma decided to remake the 1970s cult film "Sholay", directed by Ramesh Sippy.And now director Raj Sippy is all set to remake his "Satte Pe Satta". In the film Sanjay Dutt and Rani Mukerji would slip into the characters played by Amitabh Bachchan and Hema, respectively.Commenting on the trend of remakes, she said: "I am happy that most of my films are remade. Rani is a good actress and I am sure she will do justice with the role. In fact, more than what I did.""However, I wish someone remakes 'Razia Sultan' just like 'Jodhaa Akbar'. Esha must play the lead rolehow can I take someone else's name.

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View Point: Eat this

2008-03-22T16:21:00.002+05:30

http://www.centralchronicle.com/20080322/2203303.htm

How does one treat a malnourished child? Common sense suggests a proper meal.

Not good enough, says the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development. Its prescription is supplying an 80-g ready-to-eat dosage of 10 minerals and vitamins in specific proportions, besides proteins and carbohydrates. In other words, just pop a pill or munch a biscuit for your meal-no fussing about cooking and cleaning dishes. Taste? The child will acquire it; it's fun food.

Nutritionists and most people associated with planning and monitoring the ministry's Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) find this approach distasteful. They see in it a move to serve the scheme on a platter to private contractors and the food industry eager to pry open rural markets.

As if to confirm their fears, Renuka Chowdhury, union minister of state for women and child development, proposed public-private partnership in the ICDS scheme last month. "If contractors are allowed, corruption will increase. If it is just 50 per cent at present, it is likely to become 90 per cent," says N C Saxena, food commissioner the supreme court appointed to monitor the governments' food and nutrition schemes.

Chowdhury also wants centre to have a greater say in the state-implemented scheme.

ICDS aims to provide the right supplementary nutrition to children in the age group of 6 months to six years and is the world's biggest such scheme, covering 58 million children.

Over a hundred million children are waiting for the scheme to reach them. But despite the centre having spent Rs 5,000 crore under the scheme in 2007-08, half the children in India under the age of five are still severely malnourished. The draft eleventh Five Year Plan has now allocated Rs 52,000 crore (or a little more than Rs 10,000 crore a year) for the scheme. Although the stress is on providing hot cooked food through anganwadis and self-help groups, the size and budget of the scheme make it lucrative to private players.

Until 2006 the supplementary nutrition programme (SNP) of ICDS was completely state-funded, and each state's secretary to the department of women and child development would invite tenders for contracts to procure and supply food, especially for younger children. "The fact that these contracts are often sizeable-ranging between Rs 25 crore and Rs 250 crore-makes them prone to corruption. Over time tenders for these contracts have been drawn to favour key players (contractors) and irregularities remain the norm rather than the exception," states the 2006 Focus Report prepared by food commissioners.

Savvy Soumya Mishra

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Renuka tips for Mao vow

2008-03-22T13:41:00.000+05:30

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080321/jsp/nation/story_9043887.jsp

CHARU SUDAN KASTURI
New Delhi, March 20: Six decades after Chairman Mao famously remarked that “women hold up half the sky”, China has turned to India for assistance in curbing domestic violence that thrives in the communist state despite a ban.
China has conveyed a desire to discuss with India measures taken here to control wife beating, a practice rooted in dominance men have traditionally enjoyed over women in both societies, senior Indian officials have said.
The issue will be on top of the agenda when women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhury meets government officials during an eight-day trip to China that started today, sources said.
In 1949 — the year of the Chinese revolution — Mao Zedong had promised to quash gender inequality, indicating with his remark that women would have equal rights as men in the new China.
But they continue to be victimised at home, according to statistics provided by the All China Women’s Federation, the country’s largest women’s NGO, which works closely with the government.
Over 50,000 cases of domestic violence were reported last year to the NGO, which has invited the Indian minister. The Chinese government does not keep an official count of domestic violence cases.
The figure — provided to The Telegraph by the NGO today — marks a 70 per cent hike in domestic violence cases from 2006-07.
Around 8,000 cases from across India were registered last year under the Domestic Violence Act, 2005, according to figures released by Chowdhury’s ministry.
“The Chinese have officially banned domestic violence, under a clause of their marriage act. But that clause does not even define domestic violence, which has led to protests there, the Chinese government has told us,” a senior official at the ministry said.
The Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China, amended in 2001 to ban domestic violence, says the abuse “shall be prohibited”. It also lists domestic violence as a reason that can be cited for divorce.
“But the law is not clear about what comprises domestic violence. For instance, is the law confined to physical violence? It isn’t clear,” a member of the Chinese NGO said. The NGO and activists have been pressing for a more stringent domestic violence law.
Under the Indian act, emotional trauma suffered by a wife at the hands of her husband is also categorised as domestic violence. The law — at least its implementation — has its own share of critics though, with the government failing to provide dedicated protection officers in each district to help women fight cases.

"Anti-Dowry law often misused" - The Hindu

2007-05-18T16:42:00.000+05:30

"Anti-Dowry law often misused" : http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/14/stories/2007011416830300.htm

NEW DELHI: The anti-dowry law is more often being misused than used and caution should be exercised by judiciary in dealing with such cases, Delhi High Court Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen said on Saturday.

``Don't allow it to happen as the misuse of Section 498(A) of the Act (which allows criminal proceedings against husbands and their relatives) often nullifies the genuineness of the cases. This is a note of caution,'' he said at a seminar here.

He expressed hope that Domestic Violence Act would provide immediate relief to aggrieved women. Highlighting the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act, Sen said, ``what was found was they would really needed was civil protection and this has been the most important feature of the step.'' - PTI

SIF Times

Severely Condemning derogatory ad on men

Alimony - The Trojan Horse of Matrimony

NCW caught red handed speaking lies

Unemployed but Qualified wife- No maintanance

Google Censorship

Recognition of women’s rights on Women’s Rights Equality Day August 26, 2008

Women Protection vs. Women Empowerment

Marriage - The other side of the coin

Sex in the boardroom!- Can a female actually exploit a man?

TN women cops use third degree to solve wedding woes

Men wail on Renuka’s shoulders

Hindu Marriages Act breaking more homes than uniting: SC

Just putting sindoor not enough, go the whole hog to be legally wed, rules court

Children's Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP)

To the WCD Ministry

Is it a man's world?

Protest in Bangalore on Father's Day - 14th June

Legal Terrorism at its zenith

`I am relieved' - Prashanth(Tamil Actor & Victim of IPC498a misuse)

Prashanth: False dowry harassment case dismissed

My case is a classic example of how 498 A IPC is misused- Prashant

Article in Sakal Times- FIGHTING SPIRIT - 56-year-old joins law school

Report in Indian Express- "In a legal Mess"

Nymphotropism a boon or a bane?

Two newspaper reports on Bigamy-Adultery legal position:Actor Pavan Kalyan Case

april 27

April 21

April 19

April 18

April 17

Press links: April 16

April 15

press links :April 14

Press posts april 13- #2

Press posts 13 april 08

Save India: Help by setting a goal to make laws

Differentiated Similarities

Spineless Men

Man strips to get PF money in Vadodara

judge Chandiwal looked visibly upset

Eve-teaser cop thrashed, suspended

Haryana approves Marriage Bill

Minister digs for rapes in Cong regime

Orissa Speaker faces sexual harassment charges

WORDS OF ONE 498A LADY IN PATIALA HOUSE COURT

5 YEARS OF LOVE BUT NOT 5 DAYS OF MARRIAGE

SUICIDE IS THE LAST OPTION???????

Womens charter

Hema Malini, Esha and Ahana in a dance video

Kiran Bedi calls for change in Indian education system

To the President of India

RENUKA JI PLEASE READ - TOI

Daughter accuses Bihar MLA of molestation

SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT WORK: A HEALTH HAZARD FOR WOMEN

ANY WINNER IN THE GROUP ANY CASE

Rinku Sachdeva Dies Again Online

Rinku Sachdeva Dies Again Online

Pay Commission RECOMMENDATION

KNOW YOUR CANDIDATE

Bride rejects dowry shark

WHY WE LOOSE OUR CASES (SORRY TO SAY)

RE: [SaveIndianFamily] WHY WE LOOSE OUR CASES (SORRY TO SAY)

WHY WE LOOSE OUR CASES (SORRY TO SAY)

HEADS AND TALES

Crime In And Around Hyderabad

Contempt of court and the media

Is West Bengal Indias pleasure oasis?

Contempt of court and the media

APNEY KYA KHOYA / KYA PAYA (SORRY TO SAY)

Case

UP officials

Mechanism to check sexual harassment in armed forces

An orphanage in cause of saving the girl child in Tamil Nadu

Photographing woman's legs not harassment: SKorean court

Renuka Chowdhury Accused of Fudging "Dowry Deaths" Statistics

One-year-old boy married to dog in Orissa

Reconciliation

Consequences of IPC 498A

Anti-Feminism: What Is It?

Womens charter