What would you do when your hard-earned social reputation and fame goes for a toss owing to a bunch of false allegations on you with the premise you being “Guilty until Proven Innocent”?

What would you do when you are alienated from your own child and sent behind bars on a mere uninvestigated complaint, without trial or investigation?

What would you do if you are deemed as a criminal even before the case against you is proved?

What would you do when you see your dear childhood friend, serving a successful career as an overseas Govt. employee suddenly succumbing to a case under Section 498A of the IPC and committing suicide, being unable to bear the tormenting treatment and leaving behind a touching and sensitive suicide video?

This is just the tip of the iceberg of social injustice of which Suhaib Ilyasi, the famous TV host and pioneer of Indian Television Journalism, became a victim and also saw his close childhood friend, Syed Makhdoom succumbing to it. The latter’s suicide and suicide video inspired Suhaib to make a motion picture of the ill-consequences of the most draconian law ever formulated, the infamous Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, popularly known as the anti-dowry law. Suhaib’s case is not an isolated one. This is a tell-tale story of millions of Indian men and their families.

“498A – The Wedding Gift” is the movie that is going to be released in 2012 and will contain some interesting surprises to offer, alongside the issue of abuse of Indian husbands and their families under Section 498A.

Movie is going to showcase some totally unexpected people acting in the movie! One of them is a very famous personality and has still never acted in movies. Yet, most Indians would know his name and he even shares international fame. It would be an interesting treat to the eye watching the person perform in the movie.

Why “Aitraaz of 498A?”:

In 2003, a movie by the name of “Aitraaz” was released starring Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor. It was an extremely sensitive movie touching upon the controversial topic of feminine sexual aggression. The movie challenged pervert social assumptions and highlighted the issue of male abuse pertaining to the area of rape. It can easily be called the first ever men’s rights movie in India in mainstream cinema.

Similarly, “498A – The Wedding Gift” is another such venture highlighting the abuse of husbands and their families and thus we can say, with the advent of this movie, “The Aitraaz of 498A arrives!”

23^rd February 2012 will earmark the kickstarting of a pan-India promotional campaign for the movies covering major Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities. Watch this page for more updates on the same – https://www.facebook.com/498aWeddingGift

Watch the media reports for news related to the movie.

Every citizen must watch this movie. The monster called 498A can bite anyone. Beware if you marry in India or an Indian woman.

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In the year 2009, the Karnataka Law Commission had requested Save Indian Family Foundation(SIFF) to submit a report on the changes required in Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code. The then SIFF  coordinators submitted the report with their findings and the same was covered in media as well. Following are the links for the same :-

Section 498A causes 4500 crore losses annually

and

Govt. serious over misuse of Section 498A

These articles came in 2009 October and 2009 December.

And today, there was an article in the media excerpts of which are given below,

“In an interesting statistic which may not be exactly related to dowry cases, most suicide victims in the country turn out to be men. As per National Crime Record Bureau statistics, between 2005 and 2007, about 165,528 married men have committed suicide, as against 88,121 married women……”

“The Law Commission has recommended that the government make certain amendments to these clauses, making dowry harassment cases bailable …..”

“The Commission, headed by Justice V.S. Malimath was considering a petition made by `Save Indian Families Foundation,’ which made a submission, citing eight reasons, including misuse of the provisions by women to settle scores with family members of husband……”

“Following the petition, the Law Commission had appointed senior researcher Dr S. Krishnamurthy to look into the issue and submit his findings. Dr Krishnamurthy’s report endorsed all the issues raised by the Foundation…..”

Full article is available here for download

What if, a software engineer going through a bad marriage drafts a divorce petition containing statements like,

1. My wife is behaving like an uncompiled variable throwing runtime exceptions.
2. Every time I expect a performance from my wife, she throws an exception.
3. I tried my level best to debug my wife but could not.
4. The debugger crashes with null pointer exception when the variable called “Salary” becomes “0”.
5. I can’t “Step-Into” her.
6. She keeps on “Stepping-Over” me.
7. I want to “Step-out” of this marriage.
8. The “Break-Points” are too slippery.
9. Once suspended, she resumes with great cost.

10.  Maintenance cost is very high and upgrade is impossible.

11. Uncalled for viruses have got installed under the package “in-laws” and every time I try to uninstall the package it says, “Administrator privileges required to perform the operation. Please contact your system administrator”.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 22,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 8 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

GONE ARE the days when you thought that only fairer sex is the victim of domestic violence and abuse in India. According to a research by Confidare Men’s Rights Community Center, every year almost double the number of married men are committing suicides compared to married women.

A friend asks a man during a party, “What’s the plan for new year?” And a tight slap lands on his face from his girlfriend, standing near him, as he fails to give proper response to the above question by his friend. Similarly, in another incident, a husband gets a tight slap on his face, instead of love, from his wife as he sits expectant in a room in front of the TV. After these slaps men are advised not to repeat the mistake of last year and they should buy these passes for New Year’s party this year.

Such transmissions on the television have irked the sentiments of men’s rights organizations badly. They have complained against this commercial to the Advertising Standards Council of India and have demanded for removal of the commercial. This campaign is run by a private website that allows bookings of famous hotels, wherein, violence is perpetrated against boyfriend/husband that has irked a group of men.

Men’s rights organizations have not only demanded immediate removal of the offensive ad but have also demanded an apology from the company in all leading national and local dailies. As per the complainant organization Save Indian Family Foundation, these type of ads propagate the concept of domestic violence against men. Men are being targeted by such campaigns.

This ad insults men, while a similar ad targeting women would have drawn a lot of flak and a lot of hue and cry would have been made out of it. These types of campaigns make such behavior against men as socially acceptable. It raises a question on the safety of men in the society. Such mediums clearly show that abuse of men has grown a lot in the society. It is the result of such mindset only that the suicides figures for married men are almost double that of married women.

Often it is heard that the life of a daughter-in-law has been ruined due to the harassment meted out by husband and mother-in-law. But why is it not common to hear that a wife has ruined the life of her husband and mother-in-law. Well, it does happen but these incidents are suppressed and never make it out of the house owing to male domination in the society. Men become victims of domestic violence and compromise in order to protect the reputation of the family. This is the reason that social organizations are sprouting up for men victimized by domestic violence.

As per these organizations the poor man, if he hits his wife he is violent and if he gets beaten up by her, he is a coward; if he fights after seeing his wife with someone else then he is jealous and if he does not react then he is indifferent; if he goes out of house, he is a wanderer and if he stays at house, he is useless; if he scolds his children he is torturous and if he does not then he is irresponsible; if he stops his wife from going to job then he is of suspicious nature and if he does not stop then he lives off his wife; if he listens to his mother then he is mama’s boy and if he listens to his wife then he is a henpecked husband.

Yet, he cannot share his pain with anyone. People laugh if he does so. D S Rao, state representative for All India Men’s Welfare Association points out that the most peculiar thing about harassment of men under domestic violence vis-à-vis women, is that no one believes the man; neither the police takes up his complaint nor the Govt. has formed any national commission for men, on the lines of national commission for women. The entire incident is blown off in humor.

Some people in the society give odd names to such victimized men like henpecked husband, impotent and what not owing to which the victim feels highly undignified. Unable to bear the harassment many a men take the extreme route of committing suicide as well. We often do hear news about married men committing suicides; however, the real reason behind these suicides rarely comes out.

Vikas of Confidare Men’s Rights Community Center, another such organization, tells us that in Kolkata, the group of harassed husbands does meet up either in a public place or at some private place. When a new victim arrives, we counsel him so that his suicidal tendencies can be reduced.

Many surveys have clearly revealed that Section 498A of the IPC is heavily misused. Many husbands are falsely charged with harassing their wives for dowry under this section. In a petition numbered 583/2006 the Supreme Court had commented that many wives are taking advantage of this section and using it to threaten their husbands. As per statistics every 19 minutes a man is murdered and every 10 minutes a married man commits suicide.

It is pertinent to mention here that groups of husbands victimized by their wives have started organizing and have started protesting against the Govt. and are fighting for getting the section 498A amended to make it bailable. Govt. is thinking on the lines of amendment. These organizations are also demanding a separate men’s welfare ministry. They are creating pressure on the Govt. by making petitions supported by appropriate documents highlighting male abuse.