Time and again, I have heard that it is a man’s world.
A man is murdered every 19 minutes as opposed to a woman every 66 minutes. The number of men committing suicide is twice the number of women committing suicide. At home, men are twice as likely to be driven to commit suicide as compared to women. Outside home, men are getting murdered three times as compared to women.
82% of the taxes collected by the Government are contributed by men and Rupees 11,400 Crore is spent annually on women’s welfare. Not even a single rupee has been spent on men’s welfare in the last 60 years the country has been independent. There is a ministry for women and a ministry for children. There are protection laws for almost everyone and everything – including women, soil, animals, fisheries, forest etc. The only entity inconspicuously missing from the large list is men.
Talking about protection, even the domestic violence laws of the nation are gender biased. Only a woman can seek relief from the court under the recently enacted domestic violence act.
On the complaint of women, even 2 month babies have been arrested by the police for causing extreme mental harassment to women.
In the court of law, men are presumed to be guilty unless proven innocent. And given the abysmally slow pace of legal proceedings, it takes decades before a man can prove his innocence.
Adultery is a crime for men while women can legally do it. What is more interesting is the fact that women can now claim alimony from their illicit partner as well. By the way, unlike countries like USA where alimony is only for long lasting marriages and for a specific period of time, in India women are entitled to life-long alimony payments even if the marriage lasted 1 day.
Indian courts, including the Supreme Court of India, routinely forgive women for contempt of court and perjury because of their gender.
Any un-natural death of a woman within 7 years of marriage sends her husband to jail automatically. The most common cause of an un-natural death is suicide; and we already discussed that men are twice as likely to commit suicide as compared to women.
1.12 males are born to every female. The ratio declines to 1.10 by the age of 15; to 1.06 in the age group 15 – 64; and 0.90 for the age group 65 and above. This seems to imply that girls are either genetically superior to boys OR they are protected and men are made to do all the hazardous tasks.
As a matter of fact, worldwide women live on an average 5 – 7 years longer as compared to men. Still, the importance given to women’s health is many times more as compared to men’s health.
Talking about women’s issue is in vogue but people ridicule when a person talks about men’s issues. Hence there are hardly any opinion articles written about men. I personally spoke to an editor of a well known Indian national newspaper and he said “I agree with you in principle but I will not be able to publish any of your views. They are anti-women and the women will sit outside my home on a hunger strike”.
So, people are scared of women, and perhaps because of valid reasons. Last year, women activists forced their way into a High Court and broke the wooden chair on which the judge used to sit because he delivered a judgment in the favor of a husband in a matrimonial dispute.
Talking about the courts, a few months back a Supreme Court judge, while deciding on a matrimonial dispute, clearly told the man “Do as your wife tells you. If she says look this side then you look this side. If she says look that side then look that side. We all have suffered”.
The president of India is a woman and the most powerful politician in the country is also a woman. And still they say it is a man’s world!
Dedicated to my wife... 