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Save Indian Family Foundation

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Save Indian Family (SIF) is an Indian social organisation which works towards reducing abuse and intimate partner violence directed against men and their families. SIF consists of many men's & family rights organisations across various Indian cities and provinces. Each of these organisations operate independently and also under the umbrella of "Save Indian Family" to get united ideologically. SIF has free helpline telephone numbers for counselling men / husbands and their family members in distress in Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Nasik, Surat, Jaipur and Kolkatta.

The genesis of SIF is mainly due to large scale abuse of Indian "anti-dowry" law and cruelty/harassment laws by some Indian women. SIF is a Liberal Men's rights organisation. SIF has no links with any conservative religious or non-religious organisations.

History

SIF was founded as a Yahoo! hosted d-list [1] on March 9, 2005 by the unification of a number of family's rights organisations across India. Many women (i.e. mothers and sisters of abused men) joined the organisation.

The Indian Men's & Family Rights Movement was started by Ram Prakash Chug in New Delhi in the early 80s soon after draconian laws were passed in favor of women by the Indian Parliament and women began to exploit these biased laws to perpetrate domestic violence against men, husbands, their parents, siblings and friends. Later on, in 1997, the Purush Hakka Saurakshan Samiti (Hindi for "Men's Rights Protection Committee") was formed in the city of Nasik to agitate against imprisonment of husbands and their families in false dowry cases.

In Bangalore, Sangyabalya was formed in 2003 and many women joined in as well to campaign against abuse of men by their wives. The founders of Sangyabalya were inspired by Dr. Warren Farrell and Christina Hoff Sommers. Many well paid Techies (Software Engineers) who faced false cases of dowry harassment by their wives joined in as well. In March 2005, Asha Kiran ("Rays of Hope") was formed in Bangalore with 13 founders including 7 techies. Most of them had by that time successfully won the lawsuits against them.

In 2005, the Pariwarik Suraksha Sanstha ("Family Protection Organization") was formed in New Delhi. Many expatriate Indians (Non-Resident Indians) from the US, UK, Middle East, etc. joined in.

The Indians in United States started a protest website on 498a to create awareness and campaign against harassment of American green card-holders by India's biased laws. Many activists refer to the Consular Information sheet of Consulate of US at Kolkatta which warns Indian-Americans in section "Dowry/VISA Demand".

As the movement started growing, it became difficult to coordinate and manage it. Some amount of disagreements and power struggles within the local(city based) organisations were also observed. For sustaining a healthy movement, also to prevent fund collection and consequent misuse, SIF was created to coordinate the activities of local organisations in various cities in India. It also has several blogs, webgroups, forums in internet / blogosphere.

Even though the SIF started as a men's rights organisation, there are significant number of women are also involved. In 2006, in order to meet a growing need, the SIF started providing free support (psychological and legal) for women in abusive relationships as well. This was initiated when a the mother of a victim committed suicide unable to bear the contant mental abuse inflicted by the victim's wife.

In March 2006, the NGO Protect Indian Family was founded in Bombay to better facilitate the work of the SIF.

SIF Concerns

New Domestic Violence Law in India

Indian Minister for Women and Child Development Ms.Renuka Chowdhury implemented the Domestic Violence laws on 26th, oct2006 (read the Law-2mb) and they faced protests from SIF and also from many other noted personalities including former Attorney General of India, Soli Sorabjee. Sensing backlash, Renuka Chowdhury said in a CNN-IBN Interview,"this act won't hit good hubbies." SIF members want the law to be made gender neutral or at least some provisions/deterents must be included in this law, which can stop women from misusing it. Noted media personalities (e.g. Karan Thapar) have questioned the sections of the law, under which a women who has got divorce many years back or an ex-girlfriend claim right to residence in a man's house. SIF activist Ashish Mukhi participates in a debate on IndiaTV(in Hindi/English Language) on the new Domestic Violence Law.

Abuse of Section 498a of IPC

Under Section 498a of the Indian Penal Code, inserted in 1983, a man, his parents, siblings and even friends can be arrested (totally and absolutely without any investigations or proof) if his wife complains of harassment and cruelty by him and his family. This law is non-bailable, non-compoundable and cognizable. That is, the accused persons can be jailed without a warrent and they can get bail only from a judge after the due process of bail argument. It takes 5 to 6 years for the trial to finish and to obtain acquittal.

What makes this legislation even more invidious is the exception provided to this provision from the general principle of law that every person is innocent in the eyes of the law and the courts until proven guilty. Therefore, in effect, every accused is treated as guilty and is obliged to prove his or her innocence before the law at his or her own cost and suffer imprisonment until proven innocent.

Some Indian women complain of cruelty and harassment by filing a complaint under section 498a, so that they can claim for an exorbitant amount of alimony and get a out of court settlement to withdraw the case. Thousands of innocent old and sick people were arrested and imprisoned even when there is no evidence of dowry demand or cruelty towards the woman. Even children below 7 years of age are not spared. Many innocent men and their parents have committed suicide after failing to fight these costly lawsuits.

But, Centre for Social Research(CSR) India, a feminist organisation prepared a research report opposing any amendments to section 498a. Even this organisations says,"The study also has observed that 6.5 percent of the total cases studied through victims' interviews were found false at the level of investigation. Many of the accused, police, judges and lawyers, categorically said that 'educated and independent minded women' misuse the section." CSRIndia claims that the misuse of the Law is miniscule compared to the number of women who get battered in India.

On 20th July, 2005, judges Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice H.K. Seema of Supreme Court of India declared Section 498a to be 'constitutional', but warned against its misuse while expressing concern that it can lead to "legal terrorism". They also stated, "Dowry Law is a shield, not an assassin's weapon". As a matter of fact, with the support and assistance of the judicial system, sexual harassment laws, section 498a & now the 'Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act' empowers unscrupulous women to use them precisely as assassin's weapons, in order to perpetrate state-sponsored and abetted terrorism.

SIF demands that the provisions be made non-cognizable, bailable and compoundable.

Does the Indian Law 498a IPC protects the Indian family values? No. Once the 498a is used the marriage will only led to separation. Even the Local News paper does not even anlysis the truth, before the court gives the judgement they start writing about the mens family only based on the womens compliant.

Male Suicide

The male suicides specially that of married men are increasing at the rate of 4% per year as per the National Crime Bureau. Based on the analysis of the study done by professor K Nagaraj of Madras institute of Development Studies every year 22000 to 23000 married men can be said to have been driven to sucide by wives. These facts are disputed. But, Indian National Crime bureau reports, 44.7% of all suicides in India are by married men while only 25% are by married women.

There are no suitably trained counselling available for men. All the sucide counselling seems to be form a pattern of trying for men to be in service objects of women .

Social Concerns

In India, the law enforcement system is highly corrupt and inefficient. So, it is not un-natural for a criminal law being used as a tool of blackmail. But, the number of innocent old and sick getting arrested under section 498a is a matter of grave concern.

SIF members point out that a large number of innocent women, even minors have been arrested and jailed due to misuse of the law section 498a (which was orginaly meant to protect women from abuse). So, they demand the law Section 498a to be made bailable and compoundable and non-cognizable.So the power of arrest goes to magistrate level from a petty junior police officer like sub-inspector.

In year 2005, about 58,200 lawsuits were filed under Section 498a of IPC. SIF activits claim that more than 80% of them are false. They argue that the real female victims of intimate partner violence mostly do not seek police help. The conviction rate of 498A cases is below 2%.

Criticism of SIF

SIF faces criticism by feminists and feminist organizations for being vocal and allegedly anti-feminist. The critiques allege that SIF members lose sympathy (whose?) due to its alleged anti-feminist stand, and they fear that the SIF can offset the women's movement in India.

Feminists point to the approximate 7000 "reported" deaths of women every year allegedly due to dowry demands.

SIF's stand is that pain and pleasure are equally applicable for both men and women, and that inflicting pain to men for the pleasure of women is sadistic.

The Indian State claims that "domestic violence" is endemic, and that only men are perpetrators and only their wives are victims. The Indian State then goes on to admit that, being unable to address this alleged malaise, it seeks to compensate by creating a new class of victims, men, their parents, siblings and friends, whom the 'law' robs of their human dignity and rights by negating the basic and fundamental principle that every person, regardless of sex or other criteria, is innocent until proven guilty.

Feminists attack organizations such as the SIF for attacking this crime that they have inveigled into the statute-book, and for demanding universal and indiscriminate justice and equality for all before the law.

News articles

  • New America Media(award winning article) reports, dowry-immigration fraud suffered by Indian GreenCard holders in US (before SIF was created).
  • Feminist Journalist Chandrima S. Bhattacharya wonders in The Telegraph about the possible reasons that led Indian men to allegedly launch the SIF as a protest platform in the wake of the biased domestic violence act by Indian parliament, when, in fact, the SIF was founded long before the enactment of this crime.

Footnotes

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