This for consolidating Awareness Campaigns and tips to fight Misuse of IPC section 498a and other women-protection laws.
Right now many of us are doing promotional/email campaigns separately, and we don't have synergy here(once we consolidate, we can refer data, get inspired by successful pitches etc.). So please ask me(email: drmura (at) hotmail.com) to send a Member Invitation.
Women-centric laws protested Members of the Indian Family Foundation conducted a peaceful ‘jail bharo’ dharna on Tuesday at Goregaon (W) to protest against the misuse of 498 A and the Domestic Violence Act, which the organisers termed as ‘wifecentric laws’. The event was supported by former Mr India, Aryan Vaid. Several women were also part of the protest and alleged that under the garb of being women-centric, these laws were being used to harass mothers-in-law and sistersin-law. The protesters were taken to a police station and later let off. The protesters said they want the government to set up a ‘Ministry for men’s welfare’.
Article in Afternoon:
The memorandum submitted through Mumbai Police addressed to PM, President, CM of Mahasrashtra, etal.
A detailed post about this Jail Bharo event is here
On July 6th 2010, Indian Family Foundation and Mashaal (Mumbai based NGOs in the Save Indian Family network) conducted a pioneering Jail Bharo andolan(Flood the Jail Agitation). Pictures here .
Participating in this Jail Bharo agitation at Mumbai, Actor Aryan Vaid showed solidarity with SIF's cause and gave an empathetic speech. In the times to come more opinion leaders will shun their fear and false-ego and join this just cause for sure.
Lets show Aaryan some solidarity right back, follow him on http://twitter.com/aaryanvaid , do inform him that you are from SIF, you can just reply to one of his tweets. He is on Facebook too, but can't send friend request("too many friend requests for this user" says FB) and hence can't comment on his wall too. But we can send him messages: http://www.facebook.com/aryanvaid?v=wall . His email is : aryanvaid0000 (at) yahoo (dot) com , send him appreciation for doing the right thing - Saving Family ... Saving Nation.
Next time all SIF local groups should do this in sync, its bound to make a huge impact.Iam sure SIF- Mumbai will soon come out with the detailed procedures and to-do list for others to emulate.
I couldn't help but borrow 'Mountain Dew's' Ad punchline "Darr ke aage Jeet Hai" - yes its always victory behind your own fears, so lets conquer the fear, lets embrace fear and dissolve it, lets use fear to make people sit up and think and then act.
There's always a decision of Fight or Flight which one has to make, and you win only if u decide to dig your feet deep and fight to finish, so what do you want to do... do I hear FIGHT?
As this Mountain Dew ad says "Bidega toh Jeetega" ... "If you fight, u win".... life is that simple when you think of it!.
So now there are two choices for all of us.... r u ready to fight .... or do you want to DIG YOUR FEET DEEP AND FIGHT TO FINISH
Purushottam's crusade against legal terrorism continues, in this program(in Marathi, by Zee Marathi) his child custody struggles are depicted along with his resistance against legal terrorism.
Summary of this program(for non-marathi guys)
This is a nice programme on Zee Marathi, called "Yaala Jivan Aise Naav". Loosely translated as "This is what is called Life".
The show is hosted by Renuka Shahane. The show is very down to earth, and it aims to put forth, problems suffered by common men. The show is characterized by it simplicity, and its direct to the problem approach,
avoiding all the publicity gimmicks rampant nowadays.
In the episode on 6th February, a gentleman, by the name Purushottam Mahajan, had appeared on the show.
After hearing his plight, everyone's eye's welled with tears, including the ever cheerful Renuka Shahane, even she couldn't control her tears. Even though the court, had granted visitation rights to this father, his wife, didn't allowed him access to his only son. It is more then 10 months, that this father, hasn't even had a glimpse of his only son, whom he so dearly loves. And the Family court hasn't even done anything about it, even when this is a glaring contempt of court.
Such was the father-son bonding, that his little son, had himself, requested the marriage counsellor in court, to increase the visitation time with his father. Whenever this father used to visit his son at his school, his son would point to his friends, and tell them, see " There comes my best friend !".
When his wife was leaving his house, the police had accompanied her. At that time, his son, requested the wife "Mummy, maybe, we shouldn't leave Papa's house". On hearing this the cruel wife started thrashing that 9 year old child, with her chappal. Such was her cruelty towards even her own child that even the Police were moved.
Bowing to his wife's wishes the husband had left his career in films, and took a job in a bank. He helped her start a beauty parlor. He tried to inculcate good values in her. He took her to places like British Council Library, etc, but she was never into it. In the mean time, she developed extra marital relationships with a police officer, which later she used to harass her husband. Not contend with verbally abusing her husband, she used to physically abuse him too. Add to all this she always insulting him, and his parents. In short, she had his life a hell.
Amongst all this it was SIFF, which offered him hope, and gave him the determination to fight against
this injustice. SIFF'ian Ajit Sakharkar helped him a lot.
Also see other news videos related to Purushottam below:
PIFF (Protect Indian Family Foundation) and IFF (Indian Family Foundation) are celebrating International Mens Day on 19th November 2009 at Azad Maidan(11 A.M to 4 P.M). An awareness vehicle rally, consisting of about 50 motorcycles and four wheelers, starting from Mulund will be converging at Azad Maidan by 12.30 pm.
We are part of the Save Indian Family Movement. This movement was initiated by victims of law who were falsely accused or threatened of law misuse, done with a view to take undue advantage, when a male family member’s marriage fails due to some other reason other than the false criminal accusation.
Male plight have always been the butt of jokes or cartoons and have never been taken seriously as their suffering is taken for granted or ignored. On this mens day we would like to pay tribute to the undisputable hard working taxpayer, Men, who pays approximately 82% taxes to the Government of India. Legal atrocities on us has been termed as “Legal Terrorism” by Supreme Court and recently the government has advised not to rush for Arrests of the Innocent Family of the Groom, as gross misuse of cruel Marriage laws has been observed for years together.
We would like to call for your Unconditional and Overwhelming support in demanding a basic constitutional infrastructure and machinery for Men and his family members.
- Calling the government attention for Introducing a Ministry for Men regarding welfare of mens and related issues. - Introducing a suo motu (By Default) punishment in the IPC for misuse of any law(especially laws concerned with families) irrespective of gender. - Creating Machinery for Men to get his serious grievances recorded as crime against men and thus allow generating statistics for men to help understand his plight better. - Identify his emotional needs as a father and allow a shared parenting during marital dispute. - Protect the Mother and Sister and other relatives of Husband during marital dispute.
We are only against the misuse of any law on any innocent. We are not against any strata of the society. We are for protection of a vulnerable section in the society. We believe that law should treat everyone equal without blindly favoring / opposing any group.
We look forward for your support and participation in making this International Men’s day a great success.
RSVP. Public Relations Officer: 9930889008 / 9769770498 / 9224335577 info@protectindianfamily.org , help@iff-ngo.org Indian Family Foundation and Protect Indian Family Foundation (Mumbai)
Supported by: Save Indian Family Foundation Bangaluru, Chattisgarh, Save Family Foundation Delhi, Hridaya Kolkatta, Pati Parivar Kalyan Samiti Lucknow, Save Family Welfare System Indore, All India Forgotten Women Hyderabad, Mothers And Sisters Initiative Delhi, All India Mother In Law Protection Forum Nagpur. Gender Human Rights Society Delhi, Child Rights and Famliy Welfare Mumbai, Bhavya Foundation Moradabad, Childs Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting Bangaluru. Sahana Hyderabad, Rakshak Foundation USA, 498a.org USA, Mynation.net (Middle East), Indiya Kudumba Pathukappu Iyakkam Chennai, Family India Lifeline Kochi, All India Men’s Welfare Association Bangaluru.
This is my routine first reply for all new members who contact me with queries, the readers of this blog also could benefit by this
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First and foremost, please attend the weekly counseling meetings at Mulund(or Borivli), if you are around Mumbai. We conduct these meetings on every Sunday, 4 to 7pm at Chintaman Deshmukh Garden, Mahatma Phule Road, Mulund(east), very near local train station. Please call 9322156141(PIFF Helpline)/ 9833066726 (Suhail) to confirm or if in doubt. For confirming the Borivli based meeting details call Jinesh on 9820241589/9769770498(IFF Helpline) .
Please attend the weekly meetings for counseling and support near you, find the nearest venue from the helplines of All India Men's Welfare Association (AIMWA)/Mynation/SIF (http://aimwa.in/contact, http://mynation.net/contact-us and http://www.saveindianfamily.in) and attend weekly meetings, which will help you solve your issues. It is very important to attend meetings/talk to fellow victims-turned-victors, etc., since it will give peace of mind more than anything in the first meeting itself. Everyone comes to meetings feeling very unlucky/cursed since they think they are the only ones having these troubles, but when u meet others in the same boat, not only u will resolve the "why me" question in your own minds, but also get a definite and positive direction on which you can work and solve your problems
There is so much collective knowledge to be tapped, in terms of working of courts, how cases proceed, what to keep in mind when dealing with advocates, and hundreds of other aspects of how to stay peaceful and still solve your problems - these inputs u wont get on any site or book, that’s a guarantee- meetings transform the people who have the will to transform.
I would recommend that you join SIF(saveindianfamily) yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saveindianfamily , where you can post your specific queries and can expect to get replies from the 4000 odd members in this group, who are highly passionate about fighting this kind of misuse of law and are knowledgeable than even an average advocate. The message archives of SIF yahoo group also will be helpful in getting more insight to any kind of legal situation that you may be in(you can search with Keywords related to your case).
See this for some links and resources which will help you to research solutions yourselves. Also call the helpline numbers near to you( given below) and meet the local group at their weekly meetings.
With the recent Cr.PC amendment(notified/enforced in November 2010) arrests in 498a is going to be a lesser threat since as per this amendment a warrant from the court is required to arrest any accused(of crimes with less than 7 years of imprisonment). A notice of appearance would be issued by the police to the accused who should then co-operate with the investigation, so no more arbitrary arrests by police. See an RTI reply Ministry of Home Affairs confirming that this Cr.PC amendment has been notified and is effective from 1st November, 2010
Please do your bit by sending the above RTI to the chief of police(DGP) of your state and ask for compliance, by all police stations in the state, with respect to this Cr.PC(section 41A) amendment.
In return we just need you to raise your voice in whatever way possible so that we can together see the end of this legal terrorism in families, families which are the real strength of India(and may be that’s why families are being systematically targeted and broken down by vested interests and neo-imperialists!)
Counseling helpline for Men in distress - "Man's Voice": http://bit.ly/mansvoice
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I blog at: http://at498a.blogspot.com http://bok498a.blogspot.com http://siftimes.blogspot.com http://cruiserdeep.blogspot.com
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Cowardice asks...."Is it safe?", Expedience asks "Is it politic?", Vanity asks...."Is it popular?"... There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right: Martin Luther King, Jr.
********* Like this movie page to spread awareness, its now or never:
I am glad(I am actually holding back my sheer elation) to announce the newly formed email distribution list of mumbai, now onwards u can reach the core-group of Mumbai(PIF, NGO) by mailing to a single maild, ie. mumbai (at) protectindianfamily (dot) org
Even with these commendable firsts, the fact remained that these pockets of excellence were only possible due to a very few dedicated members, and given that their whole-hearted efforts coming out of the firm conviction that piece-meal solutions will not solve the critical problems of the opulation at large, nor will solving personal cases bring immunity to oneself in future(misuse of family laws are, by nature, multi-directional, counter-intuitive and even beyond regular estimation or risk-assesments). But like a chinese bamboo shoot we had been systematically growing our roots in mumbai without much fuss or notice by even close associates, now this chinese bamboo is ready to achieve phenomenal growth which is well within the capabilities of the well motivated group we have now in Mumbai(bamboos grow their roots first, and then after couple of years, grows leaps and bounds after it has spread its roots enough to ensure food-security and sustainability in growth and existence!).
With these thoughts I would like to invite your attention to watch Mumbai group(Protect Indian Family, NGO- For family harmony, against legal terrorism) and to prepare yourselves to get ready to be inspired.
We pledge that we will not betray ur trust, we will only exceed expectations and targets we set for ourselves, we will not engage in wasteful exercises/egoistic acts, we shall strive to excel at each endevour we plan, we shall hold truth and justice above our own lives, we shall prevail with truth and justice, we shall do everything which counts to shake-up the system and relieve all of us from the systemic & chronic rot, with a view to present a better tomorrow to our own children and all other inhabitants of this world - "Loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu".
See the brief details about the first weekly meetings in western line(Mumbai) and the discussions which lead to formulation of events until December 2008, planned to be "positively" executed in Mumbai: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saveindianfamily/message/105991
Shine on us father, that we reflect your shine unto others..... Avigna Masthu ________________________________________________________ Brief details about the first weekly meetings in western line(Mumbai) and the discussions which lead to formulation of events until December 2008, planned to be "positively" executed in Mumbai:
Today we had the first meeting(weekly') in Goregaon(western line) and we have decided upon innvoative events, as well as the tested options like Dharna,Seminars, pls see the events as below
1) October 26th, 2008, 2nd Anniverssary of DV Act(Domestic Violence act)Black march: to mark this "Black Day for Indian families" 2) November 19th- Men's day, Bike/Car rally: 40 bikes and cars with PIF, Mumbai members and out station members Optional-> Black(prominently) rangoli competitions , 2) Pamphlet distribution booths in V.T & Churchgate + family court(other courts worth which are worth it), other offices of state government,and 3) Candle march 3) 13th December - Dharna and memorandum/stats compiled as a folders andpresent to Home ministry. As a run-up to these events we can start distributing pamphlets as paper inserts, get news paper articles, etc, so that we can get maximum mileage out of every expense we incur. PS: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saveindianfamily/message/101689 (Changes in counselling services from PIF)
Hi All responsible media friends and concerned citizens.
See this post about how even dowry death cases(IPC sec 304b) could be false and misused(this post includes examples of the recent Air Hostess suicide which was touted as Dowry Death and later it turned out to be because of lover's tiff with a colleague/Pilot plus more real life and less reported cases): http://at498a.blogspot.com/2008/07/false-allegations-of-dowry-expose.html
If you all remember the alleged Dowry death of Preeti Rai Singhani, who had committed suicide after only 12 days of being with her husband in Sierra Leone(West Africa) : http://timesnow.tv/NewsDtls.aspx?NewsID=10505 , http://timesnow.tv/NewsDtls.aspx?NewsID=10601 , http://timesnow.tv/NewsDtls.aspx?NewsID=10360 & http://timesnow.tv/NewsDtls.aspx?NewsID=10422 .
In our search for truth we have found enough evidences to state that the girl suicided on her own, and Demand of dowry was not its cause(inferring from the local Police(Sierra Leone police had closed this by confirming that it was a clear case if suicide not arising due to demand of dowry) reports and Witness statements).
The girl's(Preeti Raisighani) body is still in the mortuary(in Africa) even after 60 days of her death by suicide, since her relatives still want to investigate the truth(not accepting the local police's investigation report and conclusion of Suicide by self will).
The boy's family has now run out of money after paying heavily for the mortuary(refrigerated) expenses and lawyer/bail fees(the parents of the husband where in custody for around a month and had to approach HC, Mumbai, after their bail applications were rejected in District court and Sessions court), other incidental expenses(phone, courier, local expenses), etc.
The husband is now not in a position(financially in heavy debt, due to this false allegation on him , his brothers family and his senior citizen-parents!) to transport the body at his expense, and this was projected as "the husband demanded 15 lakhs from the deceased girl's parents, for release of the dead body!!!", whereas the husband in his telecon with the girl's parents just mentioned that it takes 15,000 local currency(Sierra Leone) to transport the body to India and that he is not in position to pay that much now that his financial position is negative(on loans now)).
If anyone in the media or otherwise is willing/interested in knowing and publicising the truth in this case please contact us at 'Protect Indian Family', NGO, Mumbai.
One case less of misuse of laws concerning families, the better Indian families will be!.
swarup sarkar wrote: Dear Mr. Balram and the Editor of Times of India,
SC ruling on suicide by married women : Do you Know? New Delhi, July 30 If a woman commits suicide within seven years of her marriage, it cannot automatically be inferred that the incident was abetted by her husband and in-laws who had ill-treated her earlier, the Supreme Court has held. "The mere fact that a woman committed suicide within seven years of her marriage and that she had been subjected to cruelty by her husband or any relative of her husband, does not automatically give rise to the presumption that the suicide has been abetted by her husband or any relative of her husband," a bench of Justices R.V. Raveendran and Mukundakam Sharma said. The apex court passed the observation while acquitting a woman convicted for abetting the suicide of her daughter-in-law. Under Section 113-A of the Indian Evidence Act, a court may presume, on proof of circumstances, if the victim had committed suicide within seven years of marriages that her husband or any other relative had subjected her to cruelty. "One of the circumstances which has to be considered by the court is whether the alleged cruelty was of such nature as was likely to drive the woman to commit suicide or cause grave injury or danger to life, limb or health of the woman," the bench said. In the instant case, the deceased Shanti Bai had committed suicide by setting herself ablaze. The prosecution claimed that Shanti Bai had resorted to the extreme step as she was unable to bear the harassment by her in-laws. On the basis of the evidence the trial court in Madhya Pradesh convicted the deceased's mother-in-law Munni Bai for abetting the suicide and sentenced her to three years RI, which was affirmed by the High Court, upon which she appealed in the apex court. The apex court after perusal of various evidence and records noted that there was nothing on record to prove the prosecution's claim that the mother-in-law abetted the suicide of her daughter-in-law. Accordingly, it ordered her acquittal. — PTI
For Further reference : · NCW's recommendations to address "unnatural deaths" of married women are Unreasonable In the interest of justice, fairness and equality to both genders, we, the members of Save family Foundation, Delhi, make the following recommendations: • Section 304(B) should not be retained in the law; IPC Section 302 already covers murder andIPC Section 306 covers abetment of suicide, and therefore Section 304(B) is only a duplicationof law, which is gender-biased. • All cases of murder, including murder for dowry should be dealt with under IPC Section 302. • All cases of abetment of suicide, including those allegedly done for dowry, should be dealt withunder IPC Section 306. • If IPC Section 304(B) is not removed from Indian law, then it should be amended and madeapplicable to men and women equally. Specifically, the word "husband/wife" should bereplaced by the word spouse. • Section 304(B) treats the accused as guilty until proven innocent, thus, violating the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights which proclaims that "everyone charged with a penal offence hasthe right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty". The law needs to be amended so that noarrests of any of the accused (man, woman or child) are made without proper investigation and Written approval of police officials of the rank of DCP or above. • Those who misuse the section for settling personal scores should be heavily penalizedbecause false allegations and prosecution can cause irreparable damage to the accusedParties even if they are later declared not guilty. Unnatural death "is a category used by coroners and vital statistics specialists for classifying all human deaths not properly describable as death by natural causes. Hence it would include events such as accident, execution, homicide, misadventure (being attacked by insects, reptiles, fishes, lions, tigers, bears, stingrays, or other wild animals), adverse outcome of surgery, suicide, terrorism, war." Any person, male or female, married or unmarried, may die an unnatural death due to any of the above causes. Among these, homicide (murder) is the only cause which unambiguously qualifies as crime that can be committed by one person on another, and is already covered under IPC Section 302. It is, therefore, obvious that having a section specifically to deal with dowry murder is redundant, and only reflects gender bias. In addition to murder, abetment of suicide is also a crime and punishable under IPC Section 306 which addresses both male and female victims. Therefore, once again, it is unnecessary to have duplications and special provisions in law like Section 304(B) and Section 498(A) to address suicides of women. Most cases recorded as "dowry death" involve women who died by accident or by committing suicide. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau indicates that there is no difference between the rate of suicide of married women and never married women. However, radical organizations like NCW would have us believe that every death of a married woman is a dowry death, without providing any justification for such presumption. Recent data from the National Crime Records Bureau indicate that nearly twice as many married men, compared to married women, commit suicide every year, unable to withstand verbal, emotional, economic and physical abuse and legal harassment by their wives. While every death of a young married woman is converted into a case of dowry death leading to immediate arrest of the husband and in-laws, followed by a prompt media trial, large-scale suicides of men do not cause any outrage. Gender obsessed women's activists also refuse to admit the fact that accidental deaths are also equally likely among men and women. Therefore, it has become routine for police to arrest the husband and his relatives and book them under several sections including, IPC 498A, 304B, and Dowry Prohibition Act, every time a woman's relatives claim that the deceased woman had been killed or driven to death/suicide for dowry. This is the case even when there are suicide notes or dying declarations absolving everyone including the husband of any responsibility for the woman's suicide or death. There have even been instances where fake dowry death cases were registered and the "deceased" wife was found to be alive after the accused husband and in-laws were refused bail and imprisoned. While husbands and their relatives are under constant suspicion leading to frequent violation of their basic human rights, wives are rarely ever questioned leave alone prosecuted if a husband dies or ends his life under similar circumstances.
On 8/1/08, Virag wrote: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Bangalore_techie_killed_for_dowry/articleshow/3312296.cms
Mr. Balram,
With reference to your article in TOI, Bangalore Edition today, Pg 3, I would like to ask you who has given you the authority to conduct a media trial and media conviction of the husband's family.
It is just a mere allegation from the girl's father that she was 'allegedly harassed' for dowry. Soumya Chandra, the girl could have committed suicide due to any reason other than dowry, which will only be proved / disproved at a later stage.
How can you take the words of the girl's family as Gospel truth and print it in bold seriously putting the reputation of the husband's family at stake?
Why are you hell bent on creating a false alarm in the society that women are not safe?
One married woman commits suicide and you declare the husband's family as a criminal. 10, 000 unmarried women are committing suicide annually, you never printed a word about them.
56, 000 married men are committing suicide, you never bothered to create awareness about the same. Whose life is in more danger in today's society? There are 6 different, redundant, lopsided, biased and heavily misused laws to protect women and none for men, why?
Have you ever raised a finger about this?
You yourself are a man. Have you ever thought what will happen if your wife puts a case on you? You must be feeling great and heroic writing about women's cause. And this the result that every year 56, 000 men are committing suicide and it does not make a difference to you.
A journalist and a reputed tabloid like TOI is believed by everyone and such news by you, overtly hyped, heavily biased, and unnecessarily sensationalized are creating panic in the society that women are a liability and people are rushing to abortion clinics to abort the girl child either as an infant or a foetus. Such news from sexist people like you are increasing female feoticide in India. You are the one responsible for such hoaxes.
Why have you not printed the husband's side of the story? Why has the news made it to print when he is behind bars and not in a position to give a statement? Why did you not raise the contention that this matter is subjudice and you cannot print it without taking the views of both the parties?
You call yourself the champion of women's causes with such article, are the mothers and sisters of husbands not women? This yellow journalism by TOI is spreading poison in the society and creating a gender divide which will ultimately lead to a social catastrophe. My job is to create awareness and warn you before hand about it. Choice is yours whether you want to ignore it or heed to it.
Have you ever raised the question that 56, 000 husband killer wives are roaming freely in the society?
-- Thanks & Regards Virag Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. http://www.siftimes.com http://www.savefamily.org http://mynation.net http://legalfighter.blogspot.com/ http://crusader-magicofmind.blogspot.com/ http://crusader-indianjustice.blogspot.com/ http://feministindia.blogspot.com/ http://legalfighter.wordpress.com http://www.merinews.com/allArticles.do;jsessionid=BD553EEC98EAF167806C6437009FFBE6?choice=ByUser&pageNo=1&userId=crusader
To Save Indian Society Tomorrow Save Your Family TODAY.
To know About Indian Laws Browse http://mynation.net For News : http://mynation.blogvis.com For Victim Stories : http://498a.blogvis.com List Legal Terrorists: http://498agirls.blogvis.com
