The Delhi Commission for Women specifically created to help women, also receives complaints from men harassed by their wives. Out of the total number of complaints that DCW receives, around 20 per cent complaints are registered by men. It is interesting to note that not only DCW takes cognisance of these complaints, but resolves them as well.
"DCW's doors are open to all. The complaints are not registered by women only. In last three months we have received lots of complaints where complainants are males. These complaints are related to domestic tortures where men feel they have been harassed by their wives, some are cases of infidelity where wives cheated on their husbands," said a source in DCW.
In the first case, Sanjay Kumar (name changed) who lives in Raen Basera of Bangla Sahib Gurudwara registered a complaint against his wife. In the complaint lodged with the DCW on October 2, he said she (her wife) allegedly assaulted him several times, mentally tortured and threatened him of dire consequences. "A few months after marriage, she started misbehaving with me, abusing me. After some time, she left my house and asked me to put up with her in her maternal house," the complaint read.
"We are after the complaint on a case to case basis. Just because we are a Women's Commission we are not here to persecute men. We do not ignore complaints by men, we observe them closely and see if the man is speaking the truth," said Swati Maliwal, DCW chairperson.
The complaint further read that Sanjay later agreed to live with her at her maternal home but only to be subjected to mental torture. "She locked me in a room for three days, beat up and wasn't even served food. I couldn't go to office as they said they will kill me if I try to run away. After three days I somehow managed to make my way out of the house," the complaint read.
In the second case, Monu Singh, the complainant is a resident of Dayalpur in Kirawal Nagar married a girl in 2011. According to the complaint, after few days into the marriage, the girl told Monu that she was forced into the marriage and she loves another man. As the relations between the duo turned sour, Monu's wife forced him to divorce her. "Since I refused to give divorce, she took a fatal overdose of pills alleging that she wants to commit suicide as she wants to be out of this marriage. She also said she wants to marry her paramour. later too, she poured kerosene oil on herself and called police alleging that she was being burnt alive for dowry," the complaint added. The complaint was further referred to the police by DCW.
In the third case, the complainant Rajesh filed a complaint against his wife and her lover on October 6, 2015. Alleging that she left his house two days after marriage, he said, "She used to love another man. But how am I at fault in thisIJ I asked her to come back home a several times but she refused. She is currently putting up with her family. Not only this, for the last few days we have been getting threatening calls from a male, who alleges he's a lawyer, asking me not to maintain any relations with my wife," the complaint said.
"We look after all complaints equally and give them due importance; it actually depends on the nature of complaints. In some cases, counseling is given to the couples if we feel that they need one," said a DCW official.