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VIOLENCE IS NOT GENDER-SPECIFIC – “EQUALITY FOR ALL” INCLUDES MEN
India is a country with a disturbing history of derogatory practices and customs towards women. Stories by our grandparents and historical facts are proof that women of our nation faced violence and discrimination. It has been reiterated many a time that India is a “Purush Pradhan Desh” or Male-Dominated Land but do India have laws especially for the protection of men? When we talk about “Equality” does it include women-only or the essence is “Equality of all?
Let me ask the reader a simple but intriguing question -
Have you ever talked and read about the crime against men in India?
The answer to the above-mentioned question is probably ‘NO’ because in our nation people’s perspective of men is as ‘Criminal’ and not as ‘Victim’. This article is an attempt to establish that men are also susceptible to violence and crime, to a considerable extent if not equally as women. When we talk about crime against men, most common type of crimes which comes to mind is domestic violence, rape, false accusations of rape and dowry.
Crime against men is not usually heard or seen because they aren’t always reported. Societal expectations and the absence of requisite legal provision are two of the main reasons behind the unreported crime against men.
Societal expectation: Stereotypes generated by society regarding men such as – “Men should never be emotionally vulnerable”, “Men are supposed to be strong” etc. plays a crucial role in the fact that men feel ashamed while opening up about the violence they may have faced at some point in their life. They feel if they start talking about their emotions, they will be labelled as effeminate. Societal pressure forces men to behave in a specific pattern because otherwise they will be considered as “failed men”. Being a male victim goes against society’s idea of masculinity.
Legal provisions: Surveys and studies have shown that violence against men is the point of concern but yet there is no law to protect them. Laws controlling domestic violence only consider women as ‘Victims’. Even section 377 of the Indian Penal Code 1860, which deals with crime against men, only consider penile penetration as an act of violence. Thus, the cases of non-penile penetration aren’t presented before the court of law. Similarly, in S. 498A of IPC, only a man is considered as the culprit for cruelty to his wife. Men keep themselves quiet as they believe their struggle and raised voice will go in vain because of gender-specific provisions. Hence, cases are not reported in many instances.
Supreme Court in 2018 dismissed a Public Interest Litigation seeking gender neutrality in crimes such as rape, sexual harassment, outraging modesty, stalking, and voyeurism with the following observations:
"Legislations come as a response to social and collective cry. These sections are victim-oriented and Parliament has acknowledged a woman as the victim. We cannot ask Parliament to legislate."
“Equality among all” mentioned in Article 14 of the Constitution, appears to have lost its significance to our legislators when it comes to drafting provisions on sexual harassment.
TYPES OF CRIME AGAINST MEN
Rape is not only a crime against the body, mental health and psychology are equally affected by the act of rape. Crime of rape isn’t always committed against the female body, men could be a victim too, where culprit could be from opposite gender or same gender. Men fear to stand up in order to file a report against rape because of the fear of humiliation among members of society and not having sufficient legal provision.
Domestic Violence: Usually, women experience domestic violence because of which an assumption is being nurtured that domestic violence is gender-specific. A study[1] conducted with a random sampling of 1000 married men showed around 51% of them experienced violence by their wives/intimate partners at least once in their lifetime. The most common type of violence is emotional and not physical. Lack of education, middle-class values, one person earning a higher income is one of the reasons behind violence by a partner.
False charges: Fallacious dowry and rape cases against men are growing. Legal provisions for the protection of women are the core of women empowerment. In recent times, the court has observed the misuse of the law by women who file false rape charges or dowry cases to take revenge or satisfy any grudge against men or his family as a consequence many innocent men face charges for the crime they did not commit.
Justice Jayshree Thakur of Punjab and Haryana High Court stated that-
“It has become a common practice to use the provisions of Section 498- A IPC as a weapon rather than shield by disgruntled wives.”[2]
CONCLUSION
Norms, values and perspective of society towards men is developing with the passage of time. Several men rights movement has surfaced as result men are breaking social stereotypes by sharing their agony, harassment, torture by women or Intimate partner. It is high time to recognise crime against men as a socio-legal issue and develop appropriate rules, regulations and provisions.
Scarcity of data and studies prove that crime against men is the less explored topic, which demands investigations and more surveys to gather nationwide data in order to change the situation for better. Apart from this gender neutrality is the need of the hour. Data sampling mentioned in above part of the article is clearly indicating that men do face harassment by their spouses but they have to hide behind the masculine image of ‘ideal men’. Legal provisions must incorporate violence (either physical or mental) against men as punishable by law.
End-notes [1] Malik, Jagbir Singh, and Anuradha Nadda. “A Cross-sectional Study of Gender-Based Violence against Men in the Rural Area of Haryana, India.” Indian journal of community medicine: official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine vol. 44,1 (2019): 35-38. doi:10.4103/ijcm.IJCM_222_18. Available at - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6437789/ (Accessed on 3 June 2021) [2] Amarjit Kaur And Ors. v. Jaswinder Kaur, CRM-M NO. 13517 of 2018