Open Letter to WCD Minister

To,

Ms. Renuka Choudhury,

Minister, Government of India,

Ministry of Women and Child Development,

Shastri Bhavan `A’ Wing,Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road,

New Delhi-110001

Sub : Review of Domestic Violence Act, 2005 on 25^th June 2008

Respected Madam,

This is in connection to the review meeting and the article in Today’s Telegraph: Men wail on Renuka’s shoulders

It is extremely surprising that NONE of the below NGOs fighting for family harmony and male rights have been invited for the 25^th June 2008 review meeting on Domestic Violence Act 2005, till date.

Organizations working towards stoppage of misuse of Dowry Laws and Legal Terrorism in India and promoting family and marital harmony

1. Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), Bangalore: 0934285323538/09845143724
2. Save Family Foundation (SFF), Delhi: 9810611534 / 9911119113
3. Gender Human Rights Society, Delhi : 9899329991 / 9811052770
4. Manushi, Delhi : 011-23978851 / 9350041502
5. Men Cell, Delhi : 9810170681 / 9868142608
6. Mothers and Sisters Initiative (MASI), Delhi : 9818454928
7. Save Innocent Mother and Sister (SIMS), Bangalore:09342041382
8. Protect Indian Family (PIF), Mumbai : 09869323538 / 09821414336
9. Men Rights Protection, Mumbai : 09892668560
10. Bharat Bachao Sangathan, Kolkata : 09830151555
11. Protect Men’s Right, Kerala : 09387052990 / 0484230478
12. Sahana, Hyderabad:09848280354 / 09908578457
13. Asha Kiran, Bangalore: 080-65334135
14. Kutumb Rakshna Vedike, Bangalore : 09886934853
15. Protect Men’s Rights, Orissa : 0943708337
16. Pati Pariwar Kalyan Samiti, Lucknow : 09839097522
17. Rakshak, USA/Delhi : 9810452017
18. My Nation, Dubai/USA: 0096-53869295
19. Pirito Purush Pati Parishad Kolkata : 09433094337 / 09231529437
20. All India Forgotten Women, Hyderabad : 09704683163
21. Gujarat Gaurav Raksha Samiti (GGRS) : Vijay Wadhwani
22. The Akhil Bharatiya Patni Atyachaar Virodhi Sangh (ABPAVS), Gujarat
23. Association of Protection of Mens Rights, Chennai
24. Child Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting, Bangalore (CRISP)
25. Peoples United Relationship Enhancement, Mysore (PURE)
26. Save Indian Family Organisation Rajasthan, Jaipur
27. Purushak Sangrashan Sanstha, Nasik

The websites:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saveindianfamily
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MyNationFoundation
www.saveindianfamily.org
www.mynation.net
www.498a.org
www.protectindianfamily.org
www.siftimes.com
www.savefamily.org
www.vaghelasv.com
www.pariwariksuraksha.org
www.mancell.i8.com

Various NGOs from the above list have already submitted their memorandums separately in February 2008 on the comments on the review of Domestic Violence Act 2005, and till date NONE of the above NGOs have received the invitation to join the review committee on 25^th June 2008.

It is even more surprising then who are these 100 male activists who have been invited in the meeting? An RTI is also being filed to know the credentials of these 100 Male activists, the NGOs to which they belong, the NGOs websites and their memorandums and what have these NGOs done for the male rights till date.

Awaiting an early response from your end as it is already 21^st June, 2008 and it take some time for these above NGOs for preparation for the 25^th June 2008 Domestic Violence Review Meeting.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely,

Legal Techie

A Victim of your Women Centric – Male Hater laws

Renuka to ‘Justify’ her vicious laws to men

New Delhi, June 20: Women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhary has called a first-of-its-kind-meeting with male activists demanding modifications to laws that they claim are flawed and biased against men.

Top ministry officials said they do not expect Chowdhary to yield to the demand from male groups for “gender-equal” laws, though some of their proposals may be considered. Instead, the minister could use the forum to try and explain to men “the need for laws favouring women”.

The groups argue that the laws against dowry and domestic violence against women as well as the proposed “sexual harassment at the workplace” legislation are discriminatory against men and open to misuse.

The meeting, scheduled for June 25, will be held at the India Islamic Cultural Centre in Delhi. Over a hundred male activists have been invited, ministry sources said.

In the past seven months, the ministry has thrice drawn up plans to organise the meeting, but these were cancelled by Chowdhary. Though the official reason given was that unplanned commitments had cropped up, sources close to the minister said she wanted to be “fully prepared” with legal advice.

“Now that the minister is ready, we are hosting the meeting at a public location where the media will be allowed, because we have nothing to shy away from,” an official said.

Swarup Sarkar, the co-ordinator of Save Family Foundation, an umbrella group of men’s organisations that works in cohesion with similar groups abroad, said he had not received an invite.

“This is a landmark meeting, and the minister, on earlier occasions, had promised us she would invite us. An official from the ministry has informed us about the meeting, but we have not received any official invitation,” he said.

An office-bearer of Rakshak Foundation – a group of NRI men from across the world campaigning against India’s dowry law – said they had not received an invitation either.

The concept note for the June 25 meet lists some of the key changes that the men’s groups want. The words “woman” and “man” should be replaced with “person” in the proposed law against harassment at work. Similarly, “victim” and “accused” should replace “wife” and “husband” in the domestic violence law, they have demanded.

The anti-dowry law is frequently misused, the men say. At present, it is mandatory for police to arrest all the accused named by the woman or her family before even starting investigations. The men’s groups want either prima facie evidence to be made necessary for any arrests or a provision to punish the complainant if the charges are found mala fide.

NO Arrest before Investigation – Delhi Police circular

Delhi Police Commisioner’s Circular (No Arrest without Investigation or Sanction from ACP/DCP)

Commisioner of Police, Delhi has issued a circular to all police stations in Delhi;
The instructions in this circular are:

1. Full investigations before any arrest in case of Indian Penal Code sections 498a & 406
2. Sanction of ACP required for arrest of prime accused, sanction of DCP required for arrest of other co-accused.

This circular is following the Supreme court Judgement as mentioned in this blog: http://at498a.blogspot.com/2008/04/arrest-guidelines-in-case-of.html

It seems like common sense that police should arrest only after investigations and prima-facie proof (this happens even in murder cases!), thus its actually humbling to note that it needed such circulars to put a check to harassment of lakhs of husband’s families, by way of false cases by their wives. Yes statistics from NCRB(National Crime Research Bureau) says that every year around 500 children and 5000 senior citizens get arrested because of false cases under IPC 498a, 406, Dowry Prohibition Act, etc.

Anyway this is the third of such similar circulars from delhi police, the first two are blogged at http://ipc498a.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/hyd-comm-of-police-no-arrest-without-permission-of-dcp-in-498a-cases-2002. This circular will become the third from delhi police(apart from which we have a similar hyderabad police circular & and supreme court judgement, which is fetaured in the post: http://at498a.blogspot.com/2008/04/arrest-guidelines-in-case-of.html)

We, at Save Indian Family, are slowly unearthing similar circulars from other states and will move on to the next step of enforcing them on police by sustained RTI cmapiagns which will ask compliance reports with respect to these circulars every 6 months from all police stations of a state(we will start with cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune).

We will be filing a writ petition to get the Delhi High court’s order directing the police to investigate all the pending and new cases under IPC sections 498a&406(and to comply with the other particulars of this police circular). Later we will be asking the individual police stations in delhi about the compliance to this circular, by Right to Information Act every 6 months or so, on a sustained basis.