30 Jul 10 Of the women, by the women, for the women

I have, of late, been surfing the Internet for newspaper articles related to the misuse of Sec 498A. In the course of my search, I have come across several stories related to the abuse women (they say women, but they actually mean wives) face in their homes at the hands of their ‘tyrannical’ husbands. What surprises me is that only a handful of women are quoted in these articles. It is as if Ranjana Kumari (director of the Centre for Social Research and president of WomenPowerConnect), Girija Vyas (National Commission for Women chairperson) and ‘eminent’ lawyer Flavia Agnes, among a few others, are the sole representatives of the female population in India.

Take WomenPowerConnect (WPC). Its website says its activities are aimed at influencing legislators and policy makers to frame gender-friendly policies which impact women positively. Maybe making laws to have thousands of mothers arrested along with their sons in a false 498A case impacts women positively. The website further says WPC works actively with members of Parliament to protect the interests of women in India. This brings to mind a recent court ruling which deemed that a mother-in-law can be charged under the Domestic Violence Act. Was WPC one of the brains behind the Domestic Violence Act? I guess making a provision to have mothers-in-law arrested is meant to protect the interests of women in India.

Girija Vyas must be living in a fool’s paradise as she thinks lack of awareness leads to the filing of false 498A cases. She does not term it misuse but says the lack of awareness of 498A leads to people being exploited by lawyers and the police. It is a known fact that 498A is misused commonly by educated, working women living in big cities. What this class of women does not lack is awareness. What a convenient way to pass the buck.

Take the case of Flavia Agnes who is opposing the inclusion of irretrievable breakdown as a new ground for divorce because “it will rob women of their negotiating powers during matrimonial litigation”. Does ‘negotiating powers’ amount to ‘emotional blackmail’ in cases where men who have children are separating? It is no secret that women use their children in matrimonial battles by turning them against their fathers and the courts also fail to act in a sensitive manner by depriving men of the chance to be with their children.  Or does ‘negotiating powers’ tantamount to ‘extortion’ by scheming wives who threaten to lodge false cases under Sec 498A and the Domestic Violence Act against their husbands and in-laws? I wonder.

What takes the cake is the insensitive remark of Indrani Sinha of Sanlaap. I don’t know if she is in a slumber like the fictional character ‘Sleeping Beauty’. According to her, it is not easy to misuse 498A and the domestic violence law can also be used by men. That is news to me. Since when did the domestic violence law become gender neutral? Her remarks, coming in the wake of the suicide of a 71-year-old man in Kolkata who was being tortured by his daughter-in-law, are pathetic and disgraceful. But what I object to is these women being quoted in newspaper articles time and again. Can’t we have some sane women instead who have rational views? Sadly, the voices of sane women will never be heard as long as the likes of Kumari and Vyas are in power. Women like me, who strongly protest against the misuse of Sec 498A, will be relegated to writing blogs that are read by few people while the likes of Kumari and Vyas are quoted in newspapers read by lakhs of people. Will women like us ever be heard by the masses?