By
Mansi Walia
Any violence committed in domestic sphere against members of house, irrespective of gender, age, marital status, etc, is
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.
Well, it can have various forms but one thing among all of them is common- it mostly and usually comes from your own. And that’s the most tragic part because societal pressure to maintain relationships forces the victims to be silent. Not to forget that they’re the weak targets which adds on to their silent misery.
There’s a popular narrative that dowry is the only cause of domestic violence in India. Whenever we hear or read news taglines such as “woman suffered burn injuries due to cylinder blast or due to kerosene”, “woman suffers heckling and thrashing by in laws or husband”, we take no moment to conclude that it must be due to dowry demand. Well, it is true that Dowry is the major cause behind Domestic violence against women but then how does this conclusion address the other forms of domestic violence? Does it address domestic violence against parents-in-law, grandparents/elders of family, etc? NO.
So, we must understand the other causes underlying domestic violence, one of them being dowry. some of the reasons persisting in our society but we remain indifferent towards them are- infertility of women, female childbirth, pressure to conceive male child, adulterous relations , forced sexual orientation, sexual incompatibility, jealousy and possessiveness over spouse, jealousy or possessiveness over son, socio-economic differences between spouse’s families, alcohol and substance abuse, caste/cultural/religious differences between spouse’s families, punishment for disobedience and assertion of financial superiority, assertion of gender superiority coupled with male aggression, status/ authority conflict among family members, forcing voluntary abandonment/desertion, stereotyped gender roles, conservatism, etc.
There’s another popular narrative that women suffer domestic violence by MEN. The narrative asserts positively that men are perpetrators of violence and asserts negatively that men cannot be victim of the same. A patriarchal society considers males as superior beings and conform upon them responsibilities (but actually rights over women) for safety and protection of women from outsiders. This right over women enables men to have control over women, and certainly goes to the extent of inflicting violence upon them. Infliction of continuous violence in domestic sphere is justified on account of “keeping women under control” (basically tamed).
So how can those who are protectors of women can be a victim of violence perpetrated by women? How can such a patriarchal society belittle responsibilities (rights) of men over women by considering them as victims of domestic violence by women? how can male predominated society accept that men can also be targets of domestic violence and can be ‘kept under control’?
You all might have heard this famous phrase: “mard ko dard nahi hota”. Is it because man actually doesn’t feel pain? or, is it because we do not envision all the scenarios where men can become victim of domestic violence? Or is it because we consider domestic violence only as physical abuse and not other kinds of abuse?
Male members of our society can, and do suffer domestic violence in following forms:
• Domestic violence by wife upon husband;
• Domestic violence by homosexual partners on either of them;
• Domestic violence by relatives/family members/siblings;
• Domestic violence by owners over male house helpers;
• Domestic violence by children over elderly male member;
• Domestic violence by foster parents/either of the step parents;
• Domestic violence by relatives of the wife over her husband
If it’s difficult to understand as to why a man can become victim of domestic violence read the above-mentioned causes again. The recent Bollywood release “Shubh mangal zyada savdhan” subtly portrays one such cause of domestic violence against men, i.e disapproval of sexual orientation or gender identity by family members.
While talking of domestic violence against men, we’ve to keep in mind that perpetrators of violence can be anyone (just as in the case of women). We also need to recognise and be sensitive towards the domestic violence (intimate partner violence) among male homosexual couples otherwise the issue of victimisation of men remains incomplete.
But how does, a generally dominant member of family become victim of domestic violence? Well as stated previously any form of domestic violence occurs only when one is dominant and other is dependent. This dependency can result from financial and physical incapability, as in case of elder male members of family. This vulnerability can also result out of sexual dependency coupled with social hostility as in case of homosexual male couples who cannot even report this violence due to fear of social disapproval of such relationship on the first hand. Also, the financial status of spouse or spouse’s family (financial dominance) can result in male victimisation in domestic sphere. Domestic violence need not be active physical abuse only; it includes sexual abuse causing emotional trauma, verbal abuse causing mental torture, deprivation of food/ finance causing mental torture and affecting health, stigmatisation and verbal insults by spouse due to sexual incompetency or impotency, and so on.
Now, having said that It becomes necessary to evaluate the grievance redressal mechanism in India available for men who are victim of domestic violence. Cruelty in any form and with anyone irrespective of age or gender should be meted out with punishment for violence perpetrator, i.e. Domestic violence laws should be gender neutral. But this is not the case in India; not that men do not at all have legal remedies against domestic violence! They do not have any specific legislations as in the case of women.
INDIAN PENAL CODE: Under section 498A, definition of cruelty doesn’t include husbands as domestic violence victims, hence they cannot seek penal remedy under this section.
Under section 377 IPC, until historic judgement of 2018 all kinds of sexual intercourse among same sex persons (consensual or non-consensual) were criminal and subject to punishment. But now this section has been held violative of articles 14, 15 and 16, hence been read down in so far as it criminalises consensual sexual Acts of adults in private. That implies, forced/ non-consensual sexual intercourse among homosexual couples is still an offence and any Act of domestic violence falling under section 377 (i.e. sexual abuse) is punishable. Therefore, all the male victims of sexual abuse can seek remedy under this section against their male partners. Punishment: imprisonment for life or maximum 10 years sentence and fine.
(Case reference: Navtej Singh Johar and others vs Union of India Ministry of Law And others on 6 September, 2018; WRIT PETITION (CRIMINAL) NO. 76 OF 2016 in the supreme court of India).
PERSONAL LAWS
Well, personal laws give men right to seek divorce against their wives under the ground of “cruelty”. Now what constitutes cruelty, is something that depends from case to case. To constitute cruelty, the conduct complained of should be "grave and weighty" so as to conclude that the petitioner spouse cannot be reasonably expected to live with the other. Following are some of cases wherein certain instances were concluded to be cruelty against husbands and husband was granted divorce on the same basis.
• Filing false criminal cases, breaking & throwing Mangal sutra, getting husband arrested, neglecting household, ill- treating husband etc. are cruelty, as held by Punjab and Haryana high court in case: Dr. Anita Rani Versus Dr. Suresh Kumar.
• Wife denying sex, acting like deadwood, non-participation in rituals and ceremonies, deserting husband are all cruelty, as held by the High Court of Delhi, in the case of Smt. Shashi Bala Vs. Shri Rajiv Arora
• Forcing husband to be a Ghar Jamaee, deserting him on his refusal to ditch his own parents, not attending to his ailments are all matrimonial cruelty. Divorce decreed by Madhya Pradesh high court in the case of Gajendra vs Smt. Madhu Mati
• In a case reported in The Guardian (October 8. 2016), The supreme court of India granted a divorce to a man on the grounds of “cruelty” after his wife refused to share a home with her in-laws, effectively ruling that a married woman must live with her husband’s family.
Elderly Male Domestic Violence and legislations available: Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 provides for effective provisions for the maintenance and welfare of parents and senior citizens. Any male elder family member can seek maintenance from his children and in case any person who abandons a senior citizen they’re responsible for can be jailed for up to 3 months, and/or be made to pay a fine of up to five thousand rupees.
If I’ve missed any other legal provision relevant to present context, kindly suggest me in the comments.
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