Now, Indian men seek justice!

New Delhi, Nov 19 - Claiming men are subjected to severe discrimination under law and their basic rights are violated every day, a group of men activists on International Men's Day Monday demanded a separate department be set up to deal with 'crimes against men'.

The activists observed International Men's Day for the first time in the country and submitted a memorandum to the offices of the prime minister and the home minister, urging for the setting up of a 'Ministry for Men's Welfare'.

'Men perform some of the most risky and challenging jobs in society and while the government of India collects 82 percent of its tax revenues from men, not a single rupee has been allocated in the name of men's welfare in the budget in the last 60 years,' said Swarup Sarkar, an activist with Save India Family Foundation, an NGO.

'An increasing number of men are losing employment, more women are entering the job market and defying their traditional roles within the family and the society. Nevertheless, the society is refusing to free men of their traditional duties of protecting and providing for women, children and the aged.

'In addition, men are being subjected to severe discrimination under law and their basic human rights are being violated every day in the name of more and more legal provisions that claim to empower and protect women,' Sarkar added.

International chapters of Save Family Foundation will make a similar request at the Indian embassies in Britain, the US, Australia and the Mid-East.

Neeraj Aggarwal, another activist, said thousands of men are becoming victims of 'legal terrorism' unleashed through the misuse of the Indian Penal Code section 498 A, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, adultery laws, laws against rape and sexual harassment, and even laws pertaining to divorce, maintenance and child custody.

According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), the number of suicides by males in every age group studied outweighs the number of suicides by females, in the recent years.

'In the year 2005 alone, nearly twice as many married men - 52,483 - compared to married women - 28,186 - committed suicide unable to withstand verbal, emotional, economic and physical abuse and legal harassment,' Aggarwal said.

Sarkar added: 'The NCRB figures suggest that only two percent of 120,000 men arrested in the country under dowry charges are being convicted, which suggests that a large number of men are implicated in false cases.'

A well-known woman activist, dismayed at the men activists' demands, remarked: 'Though anti-dowry laws and domestic violence acts are tough, and sometimes men become victims of them, but it largely helps women get justice in a male-dominated society.'

(c) Indo-Asian News Service

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