INTRODUCTION
Our Constitution is a distinctive document, not as a result of its length however due to its attributes. It’s our Constitution that removes all variations and makes India a profane, democratic, republic, and sovereign country. The Constitution tries to assist its public through various provisions which can provide them a life filled with dignity, security, and equality. One among these articles is Article 15. It states that “the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, or any of them.” It tries to safeguard its countrymen against discrimination.” Further, it empowers the state to form policies to alleviate the standing of ladies and kids. Implementation has raised the bar for girls and women and now the situation is somewhat better. However today these laws and policies are abused by ladies for wrong motives.
MISUSE OF FEMALE-CENTERED LAWS
The government has reformed several consumptive laws and introduced several new policies that assist ladies in each field. However because the government has redoubled the amount of plans for ladies, some have started abusing these laws for profit. There are cases where men are subjugated to false claims. Recently a girl’s video thrived on social media handles highlighting that how she misbehaved with a cab driver. The incident is of Lucknow where a lady of about 29-30 age was crossing a busy road and while crossing she came before the car; the girl was lucky that the car driver applied the brakes on time and saved her. However the hot-headed lady dragged him out of the car and begin slapping him ceaselessly. However the most astonishing half of the story was that the incident took place in front of the whole traffic but nobody dared to prevent her. Even the police took the cab driver to the police station on the contrary and challaned him for disturbing the peace. And left the woman with just a warning.
Recently in an interview with a T.V channel, she claimed that the cab driver was overspeeding despite the signal being red and was about to hit her. The murkier details which she revealed include that according to her, a cab driver with over 100 men used to beat her up for 2 years. On being questioned by the interviewer if this was the same cab driver who did it or the fact that she was traumatized in the past led her to assume she’d be hurt this time as well, her reply was slightly convoluted. She explained that she is unwell and she has to go out for running and walking.
This incident aggravated a division of opinions. Few supported the lady by writing that she was correct in slapping the cab driver as he wasn’t following the traffic rules, whereas others condemned her by hashtag #ArrestLucknowGirl. This event utterly disclosed that men don’t seem to be invariably wrong, sometimes it’s the lady who disguises herself as a victim. Whenever a man tries to express his emotions or explain his problems, harassment experiences, and struggles, no one really believes or listen, instead, they laugh it off because it’s a normal psyche of everyone that “Women can do no wrong, and men can do no right”. So the very first thing we have to reform is our psyche that isn’t ready to settle that a man can also be innocent. Therefore, today the whole country has to think that in the name of giving equal status to women, can we ignore such incidents?
HOW LAWS ARE ABUSED?
The women-centric laws which are enforced for the protection of ladies against this male-dominated society are blatantly utilised by women for their own inconsiderate wants that finish in men obtaining inactive with no offense. Within the case of Smt. Santana Banerjee v. Sachindra Nath Banerjee the wife made false complaints to the police against his husband. But ultimately it was proved that the allegation was false and baseless. Most of the inspectors say that 80 percent of the cases of domestic violence they file are fake.
Even many of the dowry cases are found to be false like the case of Prem Chandra Pandey v. Smt. Savitri Pandey where the wife filed a false case on the husband and his family, that they demanded dowry before the marriage and after marriage. The demands were not another woman only to fulfill his satisfaction demands. All these allegations were proved wrong. Hence the court held that the false allegation of adultery amounts to cruelty. In the case of Dr. N.G. Dastane v. S. Dastane the Supreme Court held that although it is supposed that the stronger one commits physical cruelty towards the other i.e. a husband toward his wife. But women, as well as men both, are capable of causing mental cruelty towards their partners. In the case of State v. Soubhagya Bajaj, it had been found that the lady used to file false rape cases against men to extort cash.
RATE OF CRIME AGAINST MEN
Through a study, it has been found that 2 out of 10 men are accused of false rape charges. In another study of 1000 married men among the various age groups from 21-49 years of age in the rural villages of Haryana, 52.4% of males experience gender-based violence in India. Statistics say that 1 in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape; 75% occurred before the men were 18, and 48% before age 12. These days the cases of cyberbullying against men are escalating. You can say cyberbullying a sort of harassment. Many boys and men are trolled on social media either due to their physical looks or alternative titbits. A report by a cybercrime journal highlights that 35.2% of male college freshmen had experienced some form of cyberbullying, compared to 16.0% of female college freshmen.
CONCLUSION
We are living in a country where equality is one of the leading principles. Nobody here is discriminated based on caste, creed, religion, or sex. So if our Constitution doesn’t discriminate against anyone then why the people can’t treat men and women equally? Why the society always thinks that men are culprits? The only and only answer I can get is the prejudice inside their brain. Society should try and accept that sometimes a man also can be a victim. But only acceptance won’t solve the issues, our government should try and understand that not only women but also men need safety and security. They ought to attempt to make gender-neutral laws that may remove the differences between men and women in every aspect of law. Together with this, the government must ensure that the laws for women aren’t misused.
Author(s) Name: Kanak Lata (Lucknow University)
