CHAMPIONING EQUALITY: THE CASE FOR LEGAL PROTECTIONS FOR MEN
Mohammed Yaqzan Ajwad,
ICFAI Law School-IFHE University
ABSTRACT
This is a research article regarding the urgent need for men's legal protection in the arguments for gender equality. Issues of gender rights will always be women's issues, but it is equally crucial to recognize the substantial legal and social problems that men have. This paper discusses various central concerns which include issues like illegalities in sexual offences caused by women, wrongful misuse of the law on dowry and domestic violence, and the financial burden of alimony and maintenance claims.
Men are most often caught at the 'wrong' time and place, which makes it easier to make false allegations to disprove other claims. This can have severe consequences, both emotionally and socially. More importantly, he is accentuated by a lack of specific laws that differentiate male victimhood in incidences of sexual violence. The article also explains how existing laws can be misused to take an unjust condition for men, as in the case of domestic violence and dowry harassment.
This article will provide real equality between the sexes by advocating for broad reforms that recognize and protect the rights of men. This might need laws on sexual offences against men, rewriting all those laws susceptible to misuse, and creating fair evaluative systems in maintenance claims. Public awareness and greater discussion on these issues can go a long way in restoring balance to the gender rights of every being and a smaller step toward achieving a more equal society.
KEYWORDS: Gender, Equality, Men, Biased laws, Offenses against men, Problems faced by men, Fake cases against men
INTRODUCTION
Gender equality consideration implies in contemporary society, with a lot of emphasis on the difficulties that women go through. But the import lies with discovering that there is a need to place the same premium on the recognition that men also have legal and societal obstacles that must be removed. It is very important to redefine the concepts of gender rights alongside the implicit presumptions dealing with these goals in the stance for legal formulations. It refers to the points a man must face in his life: he suffers unequal blame in terms of the judicial answers- be it toward sexual crimes, humiliating abuse of antiquated dowry laws, the misuse of the illegal legislation on domestic violence, and many more- all the risks concerning maintenance and alimony after the divorce. It calls for total balance in gender equality from the perception that legal guarantees must become the birthright of humanity.
LACK OF LEGAL PROTECTION FOR MEN IN SEXUAL VIOLENCE ACTS
One of the most pressing problems facing men now is that there is no law protecting us from women, and then they abuse us sexually, mostly, the Indian law does not address sexual offences dealing with men, but protects women from sexual violence and rape, including Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 375 (now section 63 of BNS), defining what rape is. Their corresponding laws do not exist, as a result.
Men have reported incidents where they experienced sexual harassment or assault by women as well. However, their complaints mostly go unnoticed or dismissed as soon as they are submitted. The added fact of the emasculation of the victims accentuates the stigma, and men who fall victim to sexual harassment are left to bear it silently. Policymaking in favour of the protected cannot be substituted for any legal remedy.
MISUSE OF ANTI-DOWRY LAWS
Anti-dowry laws are misused to harass and extort the husbands. Misuse of anti-dowry laws has become a major reason for the high rate of suicide among married men in India. Giving and taking dowry is prohibited and is a criminal offence under the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961. Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (now section 85 of BNS) was introduced in 1983 which defines cruelty was also misused by women to torture their husbands and their in-laws.
According to section 113b of the Indian Evidence Act, 1879 (same section in BSA), if a woman commits suicide within seven years of her marriage, then it must be assumed by the court that her husband and in-laws abetted her suicide, especially if there is evidence that proves that there was a prior dowry demand either from the husband or his family members.
Previously until July 2014, Police officials had the authority to arrest people involved in matrimonial matters under section 498A without any inquiry or warrant from the police. There is no possibility of bail as this offence is non-bailable and the husbands often lose their jobs while in jail.
On the 2nd July 2014, the Supreme Court of India in the case of Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar (2014) directed the police to follow the procedure mentioned under Section 41 of the Code of the Criminal Procedure of 1973 which contains the checklist and guidelines to effect the arrest and the court stopped the practice of such automatic arrests under section 498A. The Court also said that in a case of arrest, the magistrate must be satisfied whether further detention is required. Furthermore, there is no provision to withdraw any complaint.
In order to address the concerns over its misuse, numerous recommendations were made to alter section 498A of the IPC. In November 2003, the V.S. Malimath-led Committee on Reforms in the Criminal Justice System (CRCJS) suggested making Section 498A of the IPC both bailable and compoundable. Due to a large number of false allegations made by women against their husbands and their relatives, the Supreme Court ordered the government to alter Section 498A of the IPC in August 2010.
Even the NRI called for changes to the anti-dowry law. The law charged Anindya Chatterjee, an IT professional from California who manages an online support group. According to him, men are occasionally accused of crimes while in India and detained by the police without first confirming the veracity of the charges. As a result, their passports are seized, and the cases frequently take a year to resolve. Because they are unable to leave India or must travel frequently to attend court processes, men consequently lose their careers overseas. Due to India's historical abuse of the anti-dowry statute, both the US and Canada have issued travel recommendations.
The Law Commission of India in January 2012 recommended that Section 498A should be made a compoundable offense. However, it is at the court's discretion to decide whether the particular case is compoundable or not. Despite the recommendations, no legislative amendments have been made to change the nature of section 498A.
The Government of India 2015 planned to make amendments to Section 498A make the said section compoundable and increase the fine from 1k to 15k for filing a fake case. However, Amit Gupta, of the National Coalition for Men, opposed the amending of Section 498A and making it compoundable, he said that if it is made compoundable it will make extortion much easier. He said this after Andhra Pradesh made it compoundable the number of cases against men rose by 150% and the conviction of women for filing fake cases was reduced by 400%.
Swarup Sarkar, a spokesman for the Save India Family Foundation (SIFF), claims that men with lower incomes are rarely singled out and that men with higher incomes are the ones who are most frequently abused by these regulations. According to him, these regulations don't give much weight to evidence and presume that women are always telling the truth. A court in India has referred to the abuse of these provisions as "legal terrorism." Six per cent of all arrests under the Indian Penal Code are made by Section 498A. Except for theft and injury, Section 498A has the highest rate of 4.5% of all crimes registered under the Indian Penal Code. Just 15% of cases that get to trial end in conviction. 3,72,706 Section 498A cases were pending in Indian courts as of July 2014.
DIVORCE AND CHILD CUSTODY LAWS
Laws about divorce and child custody are discriminatory against males because they permit divorced spouses to prevent their husbands from seeing their children and because they believe that men are incapable of raising children. Only in cases when the mother is mentally ill or has abandoned the child and left them behind does the father get custody of the child. The Guardians and Wards Act of 1890 and the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act of 1956 currently regulate custody issues upon divorce; however, neither legislation includes provisions for joint custody or shared parenting.
Ram Prakash Chugh of the Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar Virodhi Morcha (All India Front Against Persecution by Wives) after the 2003 decision of the Supreme Court, where the wife was granted a divorce because her husband was harassing her and constantly nagging and taunting her of affairs, said that if a man brings similar cases before the court, it is unlikely that he will be getting a favourable decision.
Before the 2010 Delhi High Court ruling in Sanjay Bhardwaj & Ors. v. State & Anr, men were required to pay alimony even if they were unemployed. However, the court ruled that a man cannot be made to pay the alimony to his wife if he is unemployed. In the 2012 case of Damanpreet Kaur vs. Indermeet Juneja & Anr., the Delhi High Court ruled that a woman is not entitled to alimony if she can support herself and chooses to be unemployed.
In the 2013 case of K.M. Vinaya vs. B.R. Srinivas, the Karnataka High Court granted equal custody of a kid to both parents. Until the youngster reaches the age of majority, the court mandated that he live with his mother from July 1 to December 31 and with his father from January 1 to June 30 each year. On Saturday and Sunday, when the child would be with the other parent, both parents were granted visitation rights. When under one parent's care, the youngster was also permitted to call or video chat with the other parent. Additionally, the court mandated that parents pay for the child's schooling and other costs on an equal basis. Although these are all court rulings, legislative changes are necessary to prevent issues for men and to prevent women from abusing the law for their gain.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST MEN
The prevalence of domestic violence against males has risen recently, and many of these incidents remain unreported because the men are either too embarrassed to disclose the assault or are afraid of being falsely accused in retaliation. There is no legal protection against domestic violence for men. A measure proposed by Confidare Research and the Indian Social Awareness and Activism Forum (INSAAF) attempts to shield boys and men from domestic abuse by their parents, partners, and girlfriends. The groups want to propose the proposal, known as the Saving Men from Intimate Terror Act (SMITA), for discussion in the legislature. Nevertheless, the bill was not presented to the legislature. According to Swarup Sarkar of Save Indian Family, the Domestic Violence Act ought to be gender-neutral. Additionally, he has referred to the law as "legal terrorism." Since men, not women, are the ones who experience domestic violence, many incidents either go unreported or no comprehensive survey is done, hence there is no reliable or official data on the number of males who are affected. However, according to an article, in April 2020, 1,774 men from 22 Indian states contacted the Save Indian Family (SIF) foundation to report domestic abuse by their spouse. In addition, numerous instances of groom burning have been documented around India during lockdowns.
RAPE & SEXUAL HARASSMENT FACED BY MEN
There is no official data in India that talks about the number of men who have been raped or have faced sexual harassment. There is no legal provision for men to protect them from such issues, with the amendment to the 163-year-old criminal law i.e., IPC there is no protection for men under the newly amended criminal law BNS. There is a legal provision for women under BNS. As per section 114A of the Indian Evidence Act, if the woman alleges that she didn’t give her consent for sexual intercourse, the court will presume that the man has committed the offence of rape, and now the burden of proof is on the man to prove that the rape hasn’t been committed and it was consensual sex between the two, failing which the man will be convicted for the offence of rape. There have been many instances where women first give their consent for sexual intercourse and later after the intercourse falsely accuse the man of committing rape, all this is done either to blackmail the man and mint money out of their pocket or to take revenge on them. Only women are protected by the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, which is not gender neutral. The bill was initially gender-neutral, but the Ministry of Women and Child Development and a few NGOs stepped in and changed the name, as SIFF member Rajesh Vakahria has noted. According to him, the idea that sexual harassment exclusively affects women is out of date.
CALL FOR THE LEGAL PROTECTION OF MEN
1. Towards an Understanding of Male Victimhood: The road to equality for women and men is paved with the understanding that the power imbalance is rampant in society for both genders. Some men are also victims of different kinds of oppression. There are cases of the implementation of the protection of males through special laws regulating the reporting of sexual crimes, the defence against false accusations, and the equal rights allocation for men even if alimony is involved.
2. Raising Awareness: In the process of gender discourse promotion, this awareness of the problem of male indicators should not be forgotten. Conducting studies involving the stereotypes of imprisoned men, as well as men as victims, would be helpful for the opening of a conversational field for men to vent their issues in court.
3. The Battle for Legal Reforms: Legal Reforms should mostly be headings of the sweeping changes that empower males through implementing legal recourses; some ask for the legal liability to be introduced aiming to the men's courts, a reform law that does not discriminate against the perpetrators and gives full attention to all dimensions of alimony claims. The policy-making, colleagues from other law firms, and civil society groups are bound to follow through the prescribed procedures.
CONCLUSION
Finally, the male gender must not only fight for their rights but also acknowledge the rights of women in any equality campaign. At the same time, they also underlined the need for new legislation that provides an easier way for men to face the main challenges such as the impunity of sexual offenders, the use of anti-dowry and domestic violence laws against men as a cover for coercion and the expense of spousal and maintenance payments.
However, the limits of the legal system that has been a means to secure men from such harassment or infringement are the main reasons for the male mechanisms that are in want- and so some guys would be named among the despicable, who have no other way to restore the situation. On the other hand, it has to be recognized that malicious women misuse the female-centred laws to their advantage where fair and innocent men are vilified and excluded including stigmatization, emotional distress, and loss of financial resources.
For the sake of a society that is complete and just, it would be beneficial to sponsor the changes of the law that undeniably acknowledge the mistreatment of males, to eradicate the misapplication of laws that already exist, and to make the money issues just and fair where at times only the father is the only option of the child in the custody process. This will include the establishment of laws that are specifically set forth to ensure that sexual offences are treated according to male offenders, the adjustment of the anti-dowry and domestic violence laws that were wrongly used, and the creation of the fair alimony and the custody system. To that end, laws such as Laws on the Protection of Sexual Offenses, Men's Anti-Dowry and Domestic Violence Laws, and the Alimony and Custody Act will be enacted.
The first main goals of gender balance are to raise public awareness and maintain conversations on the topics to achieve them. By practising empathy and knowledge of men's problems, we can inclusively step onto the gender scale. Essentially, the only way to global fairness and justice is to propose the rights and the being of all individuals irrespective of sex and to ensconce legal provisions for the breaking of the minutest infringement.
REFERENCES
1. www.newmalestudies.com/OJS/index.php/nms/article/view/275
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12. https://www.rediff.com/news/report/now-a-bill-to-safeguard-men-to-be-discussed-in-rs/20121012.htm