The Governments must create a separate Ministry and a commission for the protection of men’s rights in the wake of ‘misuse’ of dowry laws and registration of ‘false’ sexual harassment cases, a forum of NGOs working for men’s rights demanded here on Sunday.
During a Press conference in the city, the National Coalition for Men (NCM), a coalition of about 50 organisations fighting for men’s rights, released a 10-point charter of demands to be considered by political parties for the lok Sabha election. “We want to highlight the increasing rate of innocent married and unmarried men falling prey to “gender biased” laws,” said NCM president Amit Gupta.
“We feel that formation of men’s ministry and men’s rights body will address the issues concerning men. Gender biased laws should be made gender neutral,” Gupta said.
A survey conducted last year showed that a married man commits suicide every nine minutes in India due to misuse of Section 498A of IPC (dowry law) against them, taking the toll to around 64,000 every year, Gupta said. Men commit suicides much more than women in our country. Men too are a victim of domestic violence, he said. Besides amendments in law Gupta also demanded that a helpline must be launched in every state to support men and protect their rights.
NCM is a coalition spread across 50 cities of 20 States of India. Gupta said this non-bailable section in which the police could arrest the accused immediately, was heavily loaded against the husband. The ‘husband’ should be replaced in the law by ‘spouse’ as the wife was also capable of subjecting her husband to cruelty, he said.