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Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj

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Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj is an Indian journalist, documentary film maker and equal rights activist.[1][2][3] Bhardwaj rose to prominence after producing a documentary—Martyrs of Marriage, which covered abuse(s) of criminal section 498A (Anti-dowry law) by brides and their families.[4][2][5] She also exposed a conspiracy of alleged victims in the Rohtak sisters viral video controversy by interviewing the witnesses and collecting proof.[6]

Education and career

Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj graduated with a B.Tech from Technological Institute of Textile & Sciences in 2006. She also did a post-graduate Diploma in television journalism from Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media in 2009.[7]

She worked as Software Engineer at Infosys during 2006 to 2008[7] before leaving the job to pursue film-making.[8] Her first documentary film Gramin Dak Sevak was a student film winner at Jeevika: Asia Livelihood Documentary Festival in 2009.[9] She has been working as editorial consult at Exchange4Media since November 2010.[7]

Activism

498-A and Martyrs of Marriage

Bhardwaj alleges to have been the victim of a false 498A case, after she and her cousin were charged under the provisions courtesy a police-complaint by her ex-sister-in-law; the issue was resolved in an off-court settlement involving a huge sum of money.[2] This brought her into contacts with Save Indian Family Foundation, and she has since often collaborated with them in demanding an outright repeal of the law or amending to a gender-neutral version.[10][2]

Women right groups and critics however note that the law has been already decriminalized to a large extent by the Supreme Court[11], and that relevant crime-statistics when coupled with extremely high rates of under-reporting necessitate its presence.[12][13][14] The conviction rates were similar to other laws and given a high charge-sheet rate, did not corroborate with the MRA rhetoric about the law being mostly (ab)used to pursue outright frivolous complaints over trivial issues.[12][15][16]

Bhardwaj's personal episode also went on to serve as the motivations for making a documentary on the locus.[17][18][19] Martyrs of Marriage (2017) narrated first-person tales of various victims who alleged of being at the receiving ends of abuse of 498A and interviewed politicians, judges et al for their take on the issue.[19][17][20]

False sexual harassment allegations

Bhardwaj campaigns against false sexual harassment allegations.[21][22] She had supported the #Mentoo movement, a campaign that was started in response of false allegations of the #MeToo movement in India and wrote about how the me-too movement turned men into disposable or collateral damage, sacrificable at the altar of the idea of protecting women.[21][23][24]

In the Rohtak sisters viral video controversy, she interviewed several witnesses and released videos that held the accusers of lying.[6][25][26]

National Commission for Men

Bhardwaj campaigns for the establishment of a National Commission for Men in India that would deal with men's issues including domestic violence and sexual assault.[27][28]

References

  1. ^ "About Author". swarajyamag.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d "The woman who fights for men's equal rights". 20 January 2017. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  3. ^ "International Women's Day: Woman activist fights for men abused by women". WION. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  4. ^ Desai, Rahul (25 May 2018). "The Indian venal code". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  5. ^ "Haryana woman's film lends voice to harassed married men". Hindustan Times. 21 January 2017. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  6. ^ a b "Rohtak eve-teasing case gets another turn with a fourth video surfacing". DNA India. 12 December 2014. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  7. ^ a b c VisualCV.com. "Deepika Bhardwaj - Editorial Consultant at exchange4media - VisualCV". visualcv.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  8. ^ "In pursuit of purpose: Tales of alternative careers from Gurugram". Hindustan Times. 9 September 2018. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  9. ^ "International Men's Day: 'I'm a Man Who Faced Domestic Abuse'". The Quint. 19 November 2018. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  10. ^ Jha, Aditya Mani. "India's radical meninists come out of the closet". The Caravan. Retrieved 21 January 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ "India women 'misusing' dowry law". BBC News. 3 July 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  12. ^ a b "Home Truths: Why we need a strong law against domestic violence". Hindustan Times. 2 December 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  13. ^ Lakshmi, Rama (30 July 2014). "India high court's 'disgruntled wives' ruling tests dowry laws enacted to protect women". The Washington Post. Retrieved 21 January 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. ^ "Why Do Men's Rights Groups Feel the Need to Defame Women Saying #MeToo?". The Wire. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  15. ^ "The Dangerous, False Myth That Women Routinely Misuse Domestic Cruelty Laws". The Wire. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  16. ^ TRIVEDI, PRASHANT K; SINGH, SMRITI (2014). "Fallacies of a Supreme Court Judgment: Section 498A and the Dynamics of Acquittals". Economic and Political Weekly. 49 (52): 90–97. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 24481211.
  17. ^ a b "Martyrs of Marriage - documentary on misuse of IPC sec. 498A". India Today. 9 January 2017. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  18. ^ "Deepika Bhardwaj, Martyrs of Marriage, and Men's rights in India". sheroes.com. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  19. ^ a b "Documenting the martyrs of marriage". DNA India. 16 January 2017. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  20. ^ Desai, Rahul (25 May 2018). "The Indian venal code". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  21. ^ a b "Filmmaker Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj: #MenToo is as important as #MeToo - Times of India". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 26 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  22. ^ "Knowing man's side of the narrative". DNA India. 16 June 2019. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  23. ^ "Men's rights activism on the rise in India in response to #MeToo". The Independent. 14 May 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  24. ^ Pundir, Pallavi (6 June 2019). "#MeToo Has Shaken Up Men's Rights Activism in India, and The Result is #MenToo". Vice. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  25. ^ IANS (8 December 2014). "Haryana's headline-grabbing sisters: Local heroes or serial beaters?". Business Standard India. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  26. ^ "Women In The Cause Of Men In Distress". HuffPost India. 26 September 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  27. ^ Jha, Aditya Mani. "India's radical meninists come out of the closet". The Caravan. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  28. ^ Masih, Niha (11 November 2018). "The looking glass world of angry men". www.livemint.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
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