Harrassed Husbands

Harassed husbands? In an ego-shattering exercise, these husbands who suffer under the hands of their wives are finally speaking out against the injustice.One might think that men in a marriage are the party who mistreat the woman. Drunken men beating up bread-earning women others spitting out the tea given by their wives in the morning if it is out of taste are the images projected by the popular Indian media. Then there is one of India’s biggest evils yet to be eradicated-dowry. Just a few months back the news report claimed a woman with a NRI husband is paralyzed allegedly because her in-laws pushed her out of a moving car. The woman’s family was not told of the incident by the husband’s family. The woman remained in a hospital in North Carolina with life threatening injuries until a nurse finally called her family in India. The reason for such an action is supposed to be the unaccepted demand of dowry from the wife’s family.

Reading such reports biases us to pursue the male as negative in a case of marital discord.However, the legally recognized, constitutionally valid 498A IPC is a vicious weapon in the hands of women who want to seek out revenge and decide to be vindictive. According to 498A IPC, the wife, relative could lodge a complaint of dowry against the husband and family which could put the family behind bars for 15 days. No warrant or investigation is required prior to arrest and there is no punishment if the complaint is proved false. This makes 498A IPC a lethal pressure-tactic which women can apply. So ultimately the burden of proving his innocence is completely the burden of the accused.

If you still find this blog slightly unbelievable, a financial analyst was hit by his wife when he refused to do household chores. A man divorced his wife in 1997, the wife unleashed vendetta on his life by filing a dowry case against him in 2007. Such cases though many don’t make it to the top, most of the time the news are underground because of the male ego and non-acceptors of such oppressions. “You need to know the oppressors to believe me,” wrote one victim.

These male victims who sell their ego and come out in the open express themselves through blogs, approach the media, form communities the SIFF-Save Indian Family Foundation is one such example and setup helpline numbers. Reasons why a wife misuses this law could be anything ranging from pre-marital affairs to extra-marital affairs. In the former case, the wife files the case, collects the funds and then marries her old flame while the latter is an obvious reason.With the continual liberation of women such cases of harassed husbands are on the rise steadily. Also, it is men with high socio-economic status who are major portion of victims. Why? It is because they are easy targets and better yields.

Interestingly, World Health Organization states the misuse of anti-dowry laws as one of the reasons for elder abuse in India.However, there is no scope for amends for this law as this came into existence after a long battle to prevent the abuse of woman in the four walls of her husband’s house.