Gender equality is fundamentally related to sustainable development and globally accepted as a necessity for the promotion of human rights

The rapid increase in the suicide ratio of men due to family problems and marriage-related issues is at an alarming stage. About 800000 (Eight Lakh) people die by suicide worldwide every year. In the year 2021 in India, 1,64,033 (One Lakh Sixty-Four Thousand Thirty-Three) people have committed suicide according to the data provided by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The rate of suicide is 12 per one lakh population which is the highest rate of deaths from suicide since 1967. As per the World Health Organisation report dated 07.09.2021, suicide is an emerging and serious public health issue in India. The suicide rate per 1,00,000 people compared to other countries is 10.5 per 1,00,000 while the suicide rate for the world as a whole is 11.6 per 1,00,000 people. Suicide rates in India have been rising over the past five decades. As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data published in 2021 (Accidental Deaths in India 2021) about 1,64,033 people have committed suicide during the year 2021 across the country. Out of which almost 81,063 people who ended their lives were married men, while 28,680 were married women. Around 33.2% of men ended their lives because of family problems and 4.8% due to marriage-related issues in the year 2021. This year, a total of 1,18,979 men have committed suicides which is about (72%) and a total of 45,026 women have committed suicides which is about (27%). Family problems in the form of domestic violence or other physical abuses against men in a domestic setting also constitute an offence, but at present laws applicable to address the issues of domestic violence are not gender-neutral and vary between men and women. A man who intends to report domestic violence faced by him finds it difficult to approach a suitable forum where he could report the matter because no one is authorized to register the complaint of a man who is suffering from domestic violence. It is wrathful to mention here that “The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005” protects the woman only who suffers any type of violence inflicted by her husband or his family including female members. So it has been presumed while enacting the said act that the male could never be a victim of domestic violence and is the offender only. The existing laws do not even recognise domestic violence against the LGBTQ Community as the law protects only women under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005. Countries like the UK AND Wales, the US, Canada, Australia, and Germany have laws protecting both men and women including the LGBTQ Community against domestic Violence. In the absence of gender-neutral laws so far as domestic violence is concerned, even a boy, who is above 18 years, old has no legal remedy to address his grievances in case he suffered mental, emotional, physical, economic, or sexual abuse.

Each such incident results in a violation of the fundamental rights of Equality before the law, the Prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sex, and the Right to life and personal liberty. It is a clear violation of the fundamental rights available to every citizen of India under Articles 14, 15, and 21 of the constitution and also a violation of Section 2(d) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. Human dignity is the most supreme attribute of society. Every human being at the end of the day strives for the dignity to which he/she is entitled. The constitution of India also provides that every citizen irrespective of their caste/ creed/sex/ origin should not be deprived of their human dignity. Gender equality is fundamentally related to sustainable development and globally accepted as a necessity for the promotion of human rights. Therefore, such violations attract a legal remedy through suitable legislation and the creation of a mechanism for its enforcement, for the protection of these rights.

(The writer is an Advocate in the Supreme Court of India. Views are personal)