Now, Battered Husbands Fight For Their Rights

Source : DNA India,  Thursday, January 18, 2007  22:27 IST

Sanjay Singh

PATNA: The day's not far when law-makers will have to come up with legislation for the protection of married men from mental and physical abuse by their wives.

The idea does not seem far-fetched considering the many incidents of husbands complaining of torture by their wives. Around 50 such husbands assembled in the state capital a couple of days back to narrate their tales of woe.

It is learnt that 22 battered husbands met in November last year and formed an association named the 'Bhartiya Purush Parishad' to put up a joint fight against atrocities by women.

If Raghavendra Srivastava, the national president of the parishad, is to be believed, there are 750 members in the body. One- third of the members are from Bihar, said Malay Kumar, head of the Bihar unit.

Kumar, a professional engineer, has moved the court fordivorce after he got married against the wishes of his lawyer father. Kumar's six-month-old marriage soon turned sour and he claims it finally became so traumatic that it led to his father's demise. "My wife and her relatives started interfering in my family affairs. They humiliated me and my family members on any small pretext," said Kumar.

Raj Kumar Jaiswal(50), another victim, recounts similar hellish experiences. Jaiswal said his objection to his wife's illicit relationship with his brother caused major differences between him and his wife.

He claims he was not only beaten up by his wife on a regular basis, but was also framed in a number of false and fabricated cases which even landed him in jail for two years.

The story of Sunil Kumar, a businessman from Patna, goes along similar lines with claims of false charges of dowry and torture being levelled against him.

According to him, soon after their marriage in May 2006, his wife and her family members tried to dictate terms to him and tried to force him to leave his family. It was when he resisted, that they slapped false charges against him and his family, he claims.

According to Raghavendra Srivastava, lawmakers have only framed legislations for the protection of wives. But now the women are taking advantage of such legal protection to harass and blackmail their husbands. He strongly advocated constitution of a national commission for men on the pattern of the same for women.