05.31.09
Consolidated Press Coverage of CRISP Press Conference
IT Engineers now face dowry harssment
Translation:
Allegation | Wives trapping husbands for money
P K Surendran, Bengaluru
Recession hit IT engineers are now facing a double hit from wives who trap them in dowry cases. After the Domestic Violence Act came in 2005, people in IT, BPO professions and business people got hit with dowry cases to the tune of 56%.
All over India, such cases are rising at the rate of 20% per annum. This allegation has been put by Pandurang Katti, President of Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), a harassed husbands association. As per him, the facts came out when last a survey was conducted amongst 1200 such people who were facing the cases. When asked, as to why only people from IT-BPO and business were most hit, Kati replied, “Because they have more money.” As per National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), 50, 703 dowry cases were registered in 2003 which has shot up to 75, 930 in 2007. SIFF has sent various memorandums to the President of India, Chief Justice of India, Law Commission of India, UPA Chairperson Sonia apprising them of the new practice of extorting money in the name of dowry cases.
Says MG Kumar from India International Law Firm, “I have seen scores of cases where high-earning husbands have been unnecessarily trapped.” Another senior lawyer says he fought a case for an IT Engineer who had married an orphan girl. But later, the relatives of the girl forced her to file a dowry case against her husband so that they can extort money from him.
05.28.09
Male subject line: Spare us the alimony
Bangalore’s family courts are being flooded with requests from men pleading reduction in alimony amounts. The plaintive chorus before the honourable judges runs something like this: “Sir, we have either lost jobs or are facing salary cuts, so please reduce the alimony. If not permanently, do it at least till the recession gets over.’’
K P Vishnu Kumar, a Keralite settled in Bangalore, was working for Oracle till January this year. He married a Bangalore-based Malayali in 2005, having met her in a matrimonial meet organised at Karnataka Nair Society.
They lived happily for seven to eight months. Then, she became pregnant and went to her father’s house. According to Vishnu, she wanted him to stay at her father’s house as a ‘Ghar Jamai’. He refused to do so and the seeds of marital discord were sown.
In 2007, they went for counselling. It did not succeed. She lodged a complaint at Thyagarajanagar Police Station against him under the dowry harassment act. But the police persuaded them to strike a compromise. The couple stayed together in an independent house away from both their parents for six months. This too did not work, and the woman ultimately approached the family court in December 2008. The court directed Vishnu to pay an alimony of Rs 18,000 per month to his wife pending court proceedings. This order was passed in February 2009.
BETRAYED AND BLED
Zameer-Ul-Haq’s case is dramatic and sadder. He was a graphic designer with Quest Media Productions, Planet Asia and Convergis. He lost his job with Quest media in February this year.
He married a close friend’s sister in May 2004 in Bangalore under dramatic circumstances. His friend’s sister’s marriage had been arranged but got cancelled at the very last moment. Seeing her trauma, Zameer, playing the good samaritan, agreed to marry her. According to Zameer, his wife however was not loyal to him and before long revived her relationship with the very man who had abandoned her so casually. This led to their separation.
She filed a case against him in February 2008 and the court asked him to pay Rs 25,000 as maintenance every month. But Zameer had lost his job and petitioned the court to scale down the maintenance. In his petition he says, “At present, I cannot pay. When I get a job, I will pay but not Rs 25,000. Please reduce it, I have a dependent brother and sister.” His petition is coming up for hearing on June 8.
Cases of battering jump the sex divide
“My wife wanted me to be a cuckold husband. I was pushed into wedlock by guile and threat. I’m the only son of my parents. What I suffered for 10 years in marriage will read like a film script. But, let me tell you, I suffered her abusing my sick mother as no man had ever endured. My mother, Santamma (66), is an acute diabetic, but my wife is so cruel that she bashed my mom’s head on the wall, leading to serious injuries. She was in KC hospital and later in NIMHANS,” narrating the story, K Suresh, 38, says he received no justice from the world.
Rake your brain, the name will zing. It’s Suresh who was instrumental in getting a policeman of Mahalakshmi layout trapped by Lokayukta last year while taking a bribe from him to settle his domestic trouble. Suresh is still waging a war with his wife and the two live apart.
Adarsh is a software professional. A Hindu, he married his college chum, Selina, a Christian, two years ago. The couple has a baby girl. Life turned sour pretty fast for them with Selina, an MBA but not working, would throw tantrums and create horrific scenes for flimsy reasons, sometimes at the dead of night. Adarsh says he sought the help of his mother-in-law in Uttar Pradesh but she kept giving him false promises. Adarsh’s parents are at their wits’ end, for the girl, they say, swears and uses off-colour risques when she gets into a fit of anger. Adarsh says he wants to try psychiatric help but can’t without her cooperation. Selina scoffs at the suggestion. When DNA met him, he was locked out and staying in a hotel. He showed scratches and bite marks on his body.
Wife-bashing has been around ever since Adam woke up from his slumber to find his one rib missing. But husband-battering has been invisible up till now. Recently, many young men in the third richest city are seen frequently rushing out of bedrooms howling. The 2006 and 2007 crime data say 1305 husbands in Bangalore ended their lives in 2006 and 1596 in 2007. It was 245 a decade ago. The national scene shows that 65.3 per cent of men committed suicides in eight cities in 2007. Bangalore comes third in the list.
Divorce cases of IT couples have risen steadily since 2003. If it was 283 in 2003, it rose to 526 the next year. In 2005, it was 946 cases and in 2006, the figure reached 1,246. Last year, of 3000 cases in family court, 1510 were from IT-ITES. Argues Virag Dhulia, a leading crusader for gender parity, “IT or non-IT, more and more young husbands are getting the stick. It’s not just a gender issue but an intra-gender issue. Women related to husbands are at a receiving end.” NCRB data say an average 27,000 women are arrested in a year under 498A (dowry harassment) which help male activists show as living proof of the charge.
Six of the eight psychiatrists contacted confirmed growing domestic troubles of young working couples in the city. “What I find,” says psychotherapist Dr Vinaya Prabha Baligar, “is the working girls today are financially empowered and they will not take things lying down as before.” p_surendran@dnaindia.net
Forget recession. Dowry stalks IT
56% of men who get booked for dowry harassment are techies, says forum for harried husbands
Injustice bytes IT’s Adams. Since the Domestic Violence Act 2005 came to the help of harried wives, more and more techie hubbies are getting drawn into cases involving their spouses.
Some 56 per cent of men, who get booked under the dowry prohibition Act or the domestic violence Act, happen to be those working in IT-BPO and Business, says Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), a pan-Indian forum for harried husbands. All of them happen to be in the age group 24-28 years. SIFF chairman Pandurang Katti says the findings came out in a sample survey they conducted of 1,200 aggrieved husbands last year.
The foundation has shot off memoranda to the President, the Chief Justice of India, the Law Commission and Sonia Gandhi to correct the “lop-sided law that destabilises thousands of families in the country.”
Why techies and businessmen? “Blundly put,” says Katti, “it’s because the techies and biz people have more money.” It is not limited to the techno-city alone. There has been a 20 per cent annual increase in dowry-related cases all over the country in the past four years. National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data says 50,703 husbands were booked for dowry-related charges in 2003; the number went up to 75,930 in 2007.
“The domestic violence Act is skewed justice,” fumes MG Kumar, of India International Law Firm. “I handle scores of cases involving well-placed husbands getting spiked for no fault of theirs.”
A senior advocate, who did not wish to be named, says he defended a techie who had married a girl, supposedly an orphan, but this wasn’t the case. The girl’s relative sweet-talked her into filing a case under dowry harassment just to get a quick buck from her husband, the advocate points out.
Media Release: COURT OF APPEAL SELLS JUSTICE AT $4,740
MEDIA RELEASE
In reply to an application to appeal in the Court of Appeal, the court Registrar has lowered the cost of security for Wellington ’s unemployed Political Busker, Benjamin Easton to $4,740. Security is the money paid to ensure that the lawyers employed in the proceeding will be paid if they win. Mr Easton filed an application in March against a decision in the High Court by Justice Dobson. The judge ruled against him, a father of a father’s coalition in his application for a judicial review of a decision of the Broadcasting Standards Authority, on his complaint against a broadcast on Radio New Zealand ’s Nine to Noon. Easton complained the broadcast was discriminatory against fathers. The broadcast was of a Family Court lawyer talking about a review of the Domestic Violence Act. The lawyer inferred that only men commit violence and only women and children are victims. Easton believes that the statements were appalling, misrepresented domestic violence and demonstrated the bias against fathers in family law. He also believes the broadcast was inconsistent with the statutory obligations of all of the broadcasting entities. The entities disagree, saying there is no need for any balance or censure against the lawyer’s opinion.
Easton’s application includes finding that the lawyer acting for NZ on Air put in a falsified application to the High Court. He argues that by compiling an application on behalf of the Authority, which is the judicial and independent body of broadcasting, NZ on Air compromised its independent responsibilities to the Crown and thereafter misled the Court. “The public should be protected from lawyers falsely using the system; colluding to get the kinds of results from a proceeding that are best for their clients” says Easton . Additionally he states that NZ on Air has a responsibility to the public to ensure that his claims about an existing bias and discrimination in family law and the Family Court are brought to the public’s attention.
“What I am bringing for a test is information on what the public has no idea is going on where the broadcasters are acting apparently under a legal blanket that directly excuses promoting fatherhood” he continues. “In other countries such like policies have been labeled and vilified as propaganda, but in New Zealand we call it section 36 of the Broadcasting Act. What I have proved in the courts is that fathers are being demonised and now I am told I cannot test such an inherent injustice unless I produce money that the court already knows I don’t have. I have produced all the information about how much money I have which is nothing. How can I produce money out of thin air? I am an unemployed political busker not a magician or counterfeiter” he protests.
The Registrar is also under an obligation to consider whether or not the appeal has any chance of success.
“The Registrar has not made any statement about this at all” says Easton . “All the Registrar has said is that if I want to get into the Court I have to have more money than I have proved I have. I have 10 days to produce the security or my argument is lost. I am frustrated because I have already fully proved that a top lawyer from a top law firm has doctored a document in court protecting our Broadcasting Commission. I have also proved that the Commission and broadcasters like Radio New Zealand should have engaged my arguments long ago about how there is a functional discrimination and bias against dads in New Zealand . Now it seems, because I have proved the bias, it qualifies all authorities to treat me outside natural justice”.
Easton will file again in the Court of Appeal, appealing the Registrar’s decision. “I don’t have any choice”, he adds, “After a while, however, this kind of poor behaviour by our bureaucrats and professionals wears one down. It’s not surprising then”, he concludes, “that in New Zealand we lose one male a day to suicide when we are up against an unfair system caring so little that the dad’s lot is purposefully neglected”.
05.27.09
SC raps Karnataka Police
The Supreme Court has rapped Karnataka police for letting the kidnapped child of an NRI scientist slip away in Feb and has given it three months time to trace the child.
Aditya, the son of an NRI scientist Dr Ravi Chandran, has been kidnapped by his mother Vijayasree Voora. Ravi Chandran has been searching for his son from two years. The SC order states: “As a last chance, the State of Karnataka, particularly the Director General of Police, Karnataka, is directed to take appropriate steps to trace the child. A copy of this order be sent to the Chief Secretary, State of Karnataka.”
Vijayasree Voora was found in a lodge in Rajajinagar on Feb 17 with Aditya. Though Bangalore cops found the mother and child at the lodge, for some reason they did not take them into custody. Chandran requested the cops to keep the duo with them till he arrived in Bangalore from Hyderabad with all legal documents. Before he landed in Bangalore, the cops allowed Vijayasree to escape. An angry Chandran then knocked on the Supreme Court’s doors.
MOM IS KIDNAPPER
Ravi Chandran is a pharmaceutical scientist based in the USA for the past 30 years. He met Vijayasree, an IT professional and a green card holder, in 2000 at a function in Indiana. They fell in love and married in Tirupati. But their marriage turned sour after Aditya’s birth in 2002. They divorced in 2005. As per a US court’s directions Chandran paid Vijayasree Rs 1 crore as a one-time settlement and agreed to pay Rs 1 lakh per month as child support. The court allowed Aditya to stay 20 days with his mother and the remaining 10 days with Chandran.
However, Chandran says Vijayasree developed psychological problems and was not able to take care of Aditya. In August 2006, Chandran sought the court for Aditya’s complete custody. In June 2007 a US court granted his request. But Vijayasree requested the court permission to take Aditya for a month to India. The court granted her plea and directed her to return Aditya on August 3, 2007. That was the last Chandran saw Aditya. The family court in New York and the Chennai High Court have issued arrest warrants against Vijayasree. The FBI has issued a look-out notice for her. Chandran believes Vijayasree is hiding in India.
05.25.09
Renuka Sans Ministry, SIFF celebrates
Despite her defeat in the general elections from Khammam seat from Andhra Pradesh, but being one of the prominent women faces in the Congress Party, former Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Renuka Choudhary, guesses were making rounds of her being included in the portfolio this time as well. But when in yesterday’s swearing-in ceremonies, her name did not appear in the list, there were some organizations in the city that had a reason to celebrate the event. On trying to know the reason, it came to light, as per the members of the organization that in Renuka’s tenure, torture and atrocities on men had skyrocketed.
Men’s Rights NGO, Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), was one of those organizations. As per foundation member, Virag, Renuka has not only completely failed to curb incidents of Domestic Violence, but also when apprised of the rising torture of men due to misuse of Domestic Violence Act, she failed to take any action to bring down the misuse as well.
National Crime Records Bureau statistics tell us that in 2007, 57593 married men became victims of Domestic Violence. As per Virag, these men take recourse to suicides having no respite. As per Foundation President, Pandurang Katti, dowry harassment under Section 498A of the IPC and the Domestic Violence Act are being heavily misused and a lot of men are being falsely implicated in these cases. He adds, Renuka’s remark that, “It’s time for men to suffer now”, has led to the torture and atrocities on men. As per him, in the four years tenure of Renuka, 123,497 women and close to 500,000 men have been arrested on false dowry harassment charges, merely on the basis of a complaint, without trial or investigation.
President of NGO CRISP, Kumar Jahgirdar told that he received a lot of smses about Renuka losing elections and being kept out of ministry from all over India wherein people expressed their happiness over the defeat of Renuka Choudhary. It was not that only men smsed; even women did participate in smsing.
05.22.09
Press Release celebrating the defeat of Renuka Choudhary
PRESS RELEASE
Sub: SIFF Celebrating defeat of Renuka Choudhary in general elections.
Activists of Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF) have decided to celebrate as Union Minister for Women and Children Renuka Choudhury lost her parliamentary seat with a huge margin of 124448 votes and left communist parties got decimated.
For last 4 years, SIFF conducted many Dharnas across cities India, where our slogan was, “Renuka Choudhury. Hai Hai. Hai Hai”.
As a woman and children’s minister Renuka Choudhury was responsible for arrest of 123,497 women under section 498a of IPC without investigation or evidence. All the cries of these innocent women had no impact on her. In an interview to Karan Thapar after passing of Protection of Women under Domestic Violence Act, Renuka Choudhury has asserted, “It’s the men’s turn to suffer now”, which is pure hate speech against a particular gender.
Renuka Choudhury did nothing being a minister for children and women except seeking media attention with her loud mouth. She went to the other extreme by calling for “Pub Bharo” in response to attacks on pub going youngsters by right wing extremists.
With her loss, the writings on wall are very clear. The extremists are wiped out, whether they are right wing extremists, left wing extremists or feminist extremists. It is also to be noted that Left party leaders like Brinda Karat and Left organization AIDWA opposed any attempts to make section 498a bailable and compoundable. The loss of Renuka Choudhury and decimation of left parties shows that extremists and nuisance makers have no place in Indian politics.
SIFF members celebrate the defeat of Renuka Choudhary as the beginning of the end of radical gender extremism in India and an onset towards a sane society where Domestic Harmony and not Domestic Violence is the call of the day and everyone is respected irrespective gender caste or creed. SIFF members in Bangalore had organized a get together meet on Sunday in Koramangala area to celebrate Choudhary’s defeat.
It is time Rahul Gandhi prevails upon the Government to continue the good governance, with immediate implementation of Judicial reforms and police reforms. There cannot be good governance, when courts are dysfunctional and police extorts and fails to do its duty. With judicial reforms, the harassment of people running around courts will reduce. With trust of judiciary increasing, fear of law by the criminals and corrupt will increase and this in turn will improve overall health of the society.
