Report of Awareness program in front of Family court

On 7th June 2008 Protect Indian Family Foundation, NGO, Mumbai (Member of the Save Indian Family(SIF) Network), conducted an awareness program- ‘Effects of 498a, Dowry Act & Domestic Violence Act on Indian Families’.

This program was at the family court, bandra. 50 members in PIF T-shirts gathered and educated the people around family about the ill effects of misusing laws concerning families and also distributed pamphlets outlining these ill effects. The program details were communicated beforehand to the family court officials including the judges and the counsellors. Protect Indian family intends to continue such awareness programs in future too, especially since the high court of mumbai itself has been promoting such programs which could reduce disintegration of families and avoid wasteful litigation for all. Crores of rupees are wasted in the conduct of such litigations both in terms of juidical resources and public resources, apart from the weakening of the foundation of nation itself- The Family.
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The present trend of wives filing false criminal cases, against their husbands and his family, at the drop of the hat(for reasons other than harassment and cruelty) is a very disturbing trend and is sure to affect India's progress itself in the long run. Progress of a country depends upon the level of wellness of its citizens, and if most of the citizens are entangled in trivial marital issues which are nevertheless catapulted into false but serious criminal cases, only god can save that nation!. The future of the nation, the children, are actually the prime affected in these unnecessary and ill-intentioned litigations there by sealing the fate of progress deep down the drains.

Misuse proportions are so overwhelming and flagrant that the Supreme court itself has termed this trend of misuse of women protection laws as 'Legal Terrorism', whereas this trend is actually fuelled by the breed of corrupt Police, indifferent Judiciary apart from the conniving and fire-starting advocates which prompts us to call it 'Sate Terrorism'!. Of course these laws are misused by the misusers themselves, but they find it easy to misuse since there is no fear of punishment even if the misuse is proved – They misuse the laws, because THEY CAN!.

The irony of all this is that women themselves are the targets of these misused women protection laws!(22% of all arrested in 498a IPC are women, compared to 5.8% average number of women arrested among the total in case of all other IPC sections. Source: National Crime Research Bureau)

************** Pamphlet used for this event**************

Protect Indian Family Foundation

Women protection laws should be used only in the
right spirit and in genuine cases, otherwise the same laws will prove disastrous
to themselves and breaks their own families.

Note to Public

Did you know that every year over 5 lakh persons are
harassed by the misuse of women-protection laws (IPC 498a, Domestic Violence
Act, Dowry Prohibition Act) – Please note that more than 22% of total arrested
are women themselves, and that more than 1.2 lakh women (over 5.3 lakh persons
in total) have been arrested since 2004 under IPC Section 498a (Source: National
Crime Research Bureau (NCRB). WOMEN THEMSELVES ARE VICTIMISED BY THE MISUSE
OF WOMEN-PROTECTION LAWS.

Are you being advised to misuse these laws just to make
the opposite party (husband and his family) submit to your terms and demands – Please note that
these laws are known as ‘Family Breaker laws’ and the persons who misuses
are termed as ‘Legal Terrorists’ by Supreme Court itself. There is no chance of
reuniting and leading a meaningful family life after anyone misuses these laws,
since trust, which is the basis and foundation block of a family, is lost. DO
NOT MISUSE LAWS CONCERNING FAMILY.

Whether you are a man or woman please realise that
fighting against misuse of laws concerning family is your duty, since these laws
only break families, puts individuals in distress for years together, and
promotes a fatherless society. We only need to look towards western societies,
where no one has benefited from laws like these, whereas violence has replaced
security and values inside their fatherless families, to know the worst effects
of destructive family laws like these.

If you have problems in your families, communicate with
each other or take assistance of counseling or elderly members of the family, do
not run to courts/police to settle scores. Making criminal offences out of
trivial family issues need to be resisted by all of us. We also urge the
legislation and government to curb the tendency of criminalization of trivial
family issues without even investigating
complaints.

DID YOU KNOW THAT you could be arrested and put in jail,
EVEN IF YOU DID NOT
TAKE
DOWRY & YOU
ARE INNOCENT !

DID YOU KNOW THAT a single line
of false complaint by wife under section 498A of IPC

(without any proof or witness or
investigation) could land you and your entire family in jail !!

Thereby wife herself blocks her entry back in the
family.

DID YOU KNOW THAT false complaint under Domestic Violence Act
(commenced from 26

October, 2006) could throw you out of your own house
!!!

For Free Advise, Call our help-lines
worldwide

Help-Line
Numbers.

Mumbai: 9869323538, 9821414336,
9224335577, 9820056091 Nagpur:
9890974788

Nasik:
9371988132, 9822011250, 9890656219 Pune: 9923056460,
9922379103, 9850883751

Delhi: 9911119113,
9891369616, 9811624141 Calcutta:
9231835462, 9830151555, 9830927619

Kanpur: 9839038424,
9335014984,9935239764 Bangalore:
80-65334135, 9845986250

Jaipur 9352562456 Kerala 9895557765,
9995433034, 9995308518 Gujarat 9825365816, 9898989884
U.S.A +650-430-9544, +612-812-4340, +917- 512-5362
Kuwait +965-3869295

More
helplines at:
http://mynation.net/contact-us

Email: help@protectindianfamily.org
or info@protectindianfamily.org

Websites: www.protectindianfamily.org, www.saveindianfamily.org, www.mynation.net
www.498a.org, www.savefamily.org, www.asha-kiran.org, www.sahanaindia.org, www.ghrs.in www.siftimes.com, www.forgottenwomen.org

THE SENIOR CITIZENS(MAINTENANCE,PROTECTION&WELFARE) BILL, 2006: http://rajyasabha.nic.in/bills-ls-rs/2006/X_2006.PDF

Its very sad to realise that it needed a bill for enforcing the debt repayment (which cannot be repaid even in a lifetime by a child) we owe to our old parents. It pains to know that we have 'advanced' so much materialistically to come a conclusion that old people are not 'economically viable' in our scheme of things!. In our pursuits for higher posts, salaries, newer toys, bigger houses and villas, our hearts become smaller and smaller to the extend that our own parents cannot be accommodated in it anymore.

Anyway its good that government has realised this unfortunate trend of desertion and indifference towards old parents/grand parents. And the bill sounds very good in its intentions, it remains to be seen how the implementation is done and what are the actual guidelines laid out in the final Law after the Bill is passed. Questions like what’s the time frame in which relief is made available and whether the process of redressal is straight and clean, crop up in mind having seen lots of shoddily drafted laws which disadvantage our seniors, like IPC 498a, Domestic violence etc(please go through some of the instances we came across in field, below).

In Domestic Violence laws its said that the complainant should be given right to residence, some misuse of DV act can lead to loss on part of parents who may lose their residence to the law-misusing daughter in law. In many of the cases we have come across in our group, we have known for a fact that the elderly parents are the worst affected along with kids, when a law like IPC 498a or DV act is misused, where elders often will have wash their hands off from a life time's savings- just on the basis of a false complaint by the wives side.

Similarly talking about implementation of DV act requires 'Protection officers' and 'Service Providers'(NGOs or groups who are already in social services or related services are supposed to apply for being service providers), these two requirements of the DV law is not yet fully chartered out and hence in many places DV act is actually a white elephant, this bill for seniors too can go that way since there is a requirement that there should be tribunals in every district- I wonder how fast or whether this can be achieved in practice.

Having said about the lack of concern by youngsters towards their parents in the name of economic success and pursuits, I also would like to caution that there is a possibility of misuse of this law too, since revocation of will and jail sentences too are possible from offences under this law. This is more so since anyone can complain (on the behalf of senior citizens), about the so-called neglect and desertion of parents by children and such complaints could be false with some oblique motive, just using the vulnerability of parents who are totally dependant on someone else while their children are pursuing their careers and interests elsewhere (but supporting and maintaining their parents all the while). Therefore proper investigation of the case facts and evidences has to take place before any action against the accused are undertaken (the offence should not be cognisable or non-bailable, lest this fire power is misused for wrecking vengeance by someone who tricks the old people into filing false cases against their kids, or in any other scenario where these provisions of law is misused for some reason or the other). In some cases indifferent parents would have been instrumental in bringing-up indifferent children, in which case penalising only the children is kind of biased and unfortunate (who cared when that child was getting mistreated or uncared for?).

You can find some counter arguments in the above lines here:
http://www.suchetadalal.com/articles/display/46/2289.article . Where the author concludes by mentioning " The growth of individualism, the fraying bonds of kinship and blood, decay of the joint and extended family are not moral failings, but are the inseparable companions of economic success. The neglected and abandoned elderly are only the generational counterpart of children hurt, mistreated, abused or exploited by sometimes desperate parents. If the government wishes to enforce its desire that all dependant people should be tended and cherished, it will have to come up with some more imaginative way of dealing with the injuries to which its own enthusiastic polices have made such a significant contribution. "

What we need as a permanent guideline is to imbibe good values, not legalising inter-personal relationships or delivering force-fitted piece-meal solutions, where love is the only thing lacking!.
Adding some points vis a vis an FAQ:

Q -> Discuss the so-called domestic laws and their good points, flaws or even ambiguity or absence – dowry, inheritance, domestic violence, senior citizens etc.

Ans -> The good thing about Domestic laws is that they address the point when a woman is oppressed, the bad point is also that they address only the scenario in which a woman is oppressed, not the scenarios in which Men are oppressed.

The recent Protection of Women against Domestic Violence law even necessitates that the complainant needs to be a women and the accused (respondent) needs to be a Man, thus excluding other scenarios of domestic violence from this laws ambit. What happens to the senior citizens who are oppressed by women, men harassed my women?.

Though our dowry laws has a provision for punishment of Dowry Givers, how many instances of dowry giving has been punished?!. Surprised?. In how many instances have girls married (for whatever reasons it may be) lesser-established boys without paying dowry?(by not buying the boy)

Its the same parents who lament after marrying off a daughter to someone, somehow, by paying of dowry, while totally avoiding the issue of equal inheritance by both son and daughter. Which if done and enforced, will end the social menace called dowry.