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It is often said that we live in a male dominant or a patriarchal society.

However, when it
comes to law in India, do we really have laws favouring the men at all?
When we talk about Gender Equality, it does not simply means equality for women, it means
gender equality for all which includes men also. We often hear cases about violence against
women, be it sexual harassment, domestic violence, dowry cases, etc. however, crimes
against men are not that often reported or even discussed in India.

We have all kinds of laws for crimes against women i.e. for rape, sexual harassment at
workplace, domestic violence, dowry cases, etc. and we often raise our voice against these
crimes against women. On the other hand, we fail to realise and acknowledge that even
men can be victims of sexual abuse, domestic violence, etc. and if we really preach about
equality, then does that equality even exist? This can be explained through an example that
Delhi Metro has an entire coach reserved for ladies.

Yet, if a man sits on the seat reserved for ladies in the general coach, then he is made to get
up from that seat completely ignoring the fact that the man might genuinely need to sit. We
raise our voice whenever injustice is done with the women but why don't we do the same
when a man is the victim?

Sections 354A to 354D and 375 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 clearly states that only a woman
can be the victim of the offences as stated in the abovementioned sections and a man
would be the perpetrator.

The Protection of Domestic Violence Act, 2005 itself states that it is an act favouring women
who have been allegedly subjected to the domestic violence. There is absolutely no
provision as to what remedy is available to a man if he is subjected to domestic violence.

Often due to these women favouring laws, men have to face false accusations and trials as
some women use these laws as a tool to harass the men.

It is high time that we should really start focussing on equality in the words gender
equality. We, as a society, need to understand and raise our voices against the crimes
against men. Even though we know that there are no cases where men are subjected to
sexual abuse or domestic violence, because these cases are not reported. We, the Indians,
have to change our perception that men are too strong or men are not emotional. A man is
often brushed aside if he shares with anyone that he is being sexually harassed by person
of same gender or an opposite gender or he is considered weak if he raises his concerns
regarding any such unfortunate incident. Due to these, the crimes against men are often go
unreported. This very mind set of our society needs to be changed.

Even though, now our courts are recognising the crimes against men and even there is a
Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2019 which is pending to make the crime of rape as gender
neutral, after the decriminalisation of Section 377 of Indian Penal Code, 1860. The Indian
Courts are also punishing women who are misusing the law just to harass men.
However we have long way to go. The stereotypical attitude towards men and masculinity
needs to be changed. Men need to open up about their problems that they face and as a
society we need to acknowledge and accept the problems faced by men in a society and
help and support them. Everyone should be treated equally in the eyes of law and there
should be no gender biasness in the name of gender equality.

"A man is forced to be an ATM for his family and if he fails to protect his wife or provide for her,
he is immediately accused of mistreating her." One of the placards visible during the event read
"Until men learn to express their pain, every story will always portray women as victims."

As per UN survey, India is the world’s numero uno in the suicide of men and 5th highest state as per
suicide rate. The exodus of male suicide is obstreperous leaving suicide note every 6 min in the nation.
Married men’s progression to suicide has been exponential in past decade and has grossed to a whopping
rate of a suicide every 8 min.

However if we consider the ground reality that is reflected in the survey


of Insia Dariwala which surveyed 1500 male out of which 71% of men
surveyed said they were abused, 84.9% said they had not told anyone about
the abuse and The primary reasons for this were shame (55.6%), followed
by confusion (50.9%), fear (43.5%) and guilt (28.7%)

on 16th of June 2018, a 20-year-old boy had to endure the sexual assault
by five men in Ghaziabad and a foreign object was inserted into his rectum
but since our law does not account for such offence, the case was registered
under section 377 of IPC. Similarly, there are lots of cases in the armed
forces where men are subjected to lots of sexual violence.

The major flawed in the paucity of laws for the safeguard of the male from
sexual assault is in the constitution itself. Article 14 [16] states that “the
state shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal
protection of the laws within the territory of India”. Further as per Article 15
[17], “the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of
religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them”. Besides, clause 3 of
Article 15 which states that “nothing in this article shall prevent the State
from making any special provision for women and children”. Thus it is legal
on the part of the state to make the women-centric definition of rape which
is stated in Section 375 IPC. But if we go by this logic state through an
amendment in Section 375 IPC can protect male as mentioned in Article 15.
The state can introduce the rape laws that are more gender-neutral as we
have to realise sexual assault is neither about sex nor about gender. At
present, there are only two laws that realize male can also be sexually
assaulted

In India, a man that commits adultery (i.e. has consensual sexual intercourse outside of
marriage) can be charged with a criminal offence. The wife may, of course, file for
divorce as a civil remedy. If, on the other hand, a wife commits adultery, she cannot be
charged with a criminal offence, though the husband can seek prosecution of the
adulterer male for adultery..

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