M A I N   N E W S

Dowry shame for Haryana, Punjab
Himani Chandel
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 19
In what could put to shame the affluent Punjab and Haryana, a Delhi-based NGO today claimed that the two states have one of the worst track records in dowry deaths and cases of cruelty against women.

The NGO, Centre of Social Research (CSR), studied some 145 Supreme Court judgments of dowry death cases in the past 20 years. “The cases were picked out on the basis of being the most significant, gruesome and their sheer longevity,” said director of the NGO, Dr Ranjana Kumari, while talking to the Tribune.

The fact that they had to be decided by the Supreme Court itself shows the severity of the cases, she added. One of the cases dragged on for 22 years and all the cases studied by the NGO have carried on between 7 and 17 years.

According to the findings of the survey of 145 cases carried out by the CSR, around 15 per cent of the total number cases were from Haryana, while 12 per cent were from Punjab.

The NGO at a meeting today quoted the survey of National Family Health survey saying every third woman in India is a victim of domestic violence.

According to the domestic violence law, every state government is supposed to appoint protection officers for the area of a judicial magistrate and publicise their names through advertisements.

In Haryana, Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) is working as a resource and guide for Protection Officers (PO), but no special steps have been taken by the government in this direction, alleged the CSR director.

In Haryana, the department of Women and Child Development has set up cells for the protection officer in the SP office but they do not have any training or any knowledge about their roles and duties, she claimed. In several other states, service providers and medical officers are not even notified by the government, further alleged the NGO director.

The review done by CSR on the implementation of law in various states across the country also cited that there are no adequate infrastructural provisions nor any proper service providers like medical facilities for the victims.

“There is no campaign, no funds and no specific guidelines for the state governments on the implementation of the domestic violence law. There is a complete lack of training and awareness”, said Saumya Bhaumik, a CSR consultant.

Only 14 states have made separate budgetary allocations for the implementation of the domestic violence act. Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim Karnataka and Delhi have allocated some money which is insufficient, said the NGO.

Anti-dowry law or ‘frame-up’ for men?
Ramanjit Singh Sidhu
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 19
Originally framed to shield women from dowry harassment, section 498 of the Indian Penal Code has of late become a “tool of frame-up”, allegedly being used to extort alimony from husbands. At least that seems so from National Crime Record Bureau figures showing 1.65 lakh married men committed suicide between 2005 and 2007 as compared to 88,000 women.

Seeking equality for men, an NGO, ‘Save Indian Family Foundation’ (SIFF), while citing these figures, raised the issue of gender bias on the International Men’s Day today. The SIFF along with Parivar Raksha Samiti, Chandigarh, demanded institution of ‘men welfare ministry’, ‘national commission for men’, abolishment of (anti-male) gender biased laws and replacing the word wife in law with spouse.

Besides, the NGO also insisted on rationalising the working of the National Commission for Women (NCW) and holding it accountable for “false propagandas”, formation of an ombudsman to regulate the anti-male quotient in media, films and TV and generating awareness about health issues related to men like prostate cancer on the line of breast cancer, short life expectancy and high suicide rate.

Vikas Kapur, coordinator of SIFF, said over 22,000 Indian men had ended their life in reverse dowry harassment by their wives against 6,800 suicides by women harassed for dowry. In all the 6,800 suicides by women, their husbands had been sent to jail without any investigation. However, over 68 per cent of the men were later found to be innocent.

And in the 22,000 suicides by men, cases had been registered only in six incidents and not a single woman had been questioned as to why their husbands ended life, let alone any punishment.

The crime against men has increased at a rate of 42 per cent over the past five years. Not only in crime, in lifestyle, too, women are dominating men, said Kapur, citing statistics showing women's average annual earned income was US $1,471 in 2002, almost three times less than the average for income of men at US $4,723. Still, he said, shopping malls were dominated by women.

The representatives of the SIFF stated that though the government earned 82 per cent of taxes from men, it has not spent a single rupee for their welfare or enacted a single law to protect men. On the other hand, more than 98 per cent of men are in armed forces while less than 28 per cent serve in media industry.

The prostitution industry is dominated by 99.98 per cent women against 0.02 per cent of men while 70 per cent of women are employed in reception, office telecom, school, bank, etc, jobs, having ease of work with less burden.

Among the victims who shared their miseries today were a former Lt Col from Pathankot, an elderly woman from Chandigarh who husband died of mental trauma, a software engineer and a man who sought court’s permission to sell off his kidney to raise funds to pay maintenance to his estranged wife.