Women Protection Laws: An Unsaid Advantage

 The Author of this blog is Riya Sharma, student of 3rd year BBA LLB (H) from Fairfield Institute of Management and Technology, New Delhi

Introduction

Earlier, we used to live in patriarchal society where men were considered to be the one making all the decisions and women were not given much rights, they had to do what men told them to. But now, things have been changing, women are considered as equals, many laws have been introduced to protect women against any cruelty. Implementation of laws such as domestic violence act, sexual harassment act, dowry prohibitions act, etc., made for women to feel safe.

These women protection laws were initially implemented to eradicate any advantage towards a particular gender and to promote gender neutrality. In contradiction to gender neutrality, these laws were considered as “anti-men” laws as these laws were only favorable towards women. India is considered to be a dangerous country for women but there are also men who gets harassed by the hands of women.

These anti-men laws gave women an upper hand and a sense of superiority as there are no particularly strict laws that protect men from being harassed by women. Whenever a woman files a case against a man for sexual harassment or a dowry case, man is most indefinitely considered to be guilty of the crime because it’s a woman’s word against a man’s.

In our society, supremacy of the patriarchy is believed as a man is considered to be the head of the family and nothing can happen without his knowledge or consent, so whenever there is a rape case, dowry case or a case of domestic violence, people have always victimized the woman without even knowing the full details. Every now and then women file false rape or harassment cases against men in order to extort money from them or to get revenge from them.

Women Protection Laws

The Indian Constitution ensures the equal rights to women. It stands on general principle of equality before law and prohibits any sort of discrimination against women. Article 15 of the Indian Constitution prohibits the state from discriminating on the basis caste, race, gender, religion, etc. Article 16 provides equal opportunities of employment to all the citizens irrespective of their caste, creed, sex, etc. Women Protection Laws were implemented to prevent any sort of discrimination against women.[1]

Women Protection Laws consists of acts such as The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, Special Marriage Act 1954, Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, Indian Divorce Act 1969, Maternity Benefit Act 1861, Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971, Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013, Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act 1986, National Commission for Women Act 1990, Equal Remuneration Act 1976, etc.[2]

Exploitation of Protection Laws

When laws are created in order to shield the rights of an individual, then it can also be used as a weapon to throttle the freedom of others who are not protected by it. India regularly gets cases of women being harassed but they never gave a thought of women harassing a man. These laws are not gender neutral as there have been inconsiderate amount of time when women have filed false dowry or rape charges.

An incident surfaced this year, where a man spent 20 years of his life in jail as he was booked for a false rape case. He was convicted in the year 2000 when he was just 23 years old and was sentenced life to life imprisonment and during his sentence of 20 years, he lost all of his family members. He was charged with Section 376 (rape), 354 (sexual exploitation), 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC when a girl of his village accused him of raping her.[3]

Infamous case of Delhi’s Saravjeet Singh and Jasleen Kaur case, where Jasleen Kaur falsely accused 28-year-old Saravjeet Singh of harassment and eve teasing. Jasleen Kau uploaded a Facebook post accusing Saravjeet Singh of verbal harassment at Delhi’s Tilak Nagar area. Saravjeet suffered internet trolling and he was shamed by the public for 4 years until he was proven innocent. There was no conclusive proof to substantiate the girl’s claim of harassment.[4]

Last year, another incident came to light when a teenage boy committed suicide when a girl wrongfully accused him of sexual harassment and rape. Wrongfully being accused of something takes a toll on your mental health.

"The vast majority of such cases are filed seemingly out of the blue over petty issues". It proceeded to express those women were not imagining the "ramifications and results" of enrolling a criminal grumbling against their oppressive spouses. "Inappropriate capture may destroy the odds of settlement" and in light of this occasionally the casualties are gone up to be an offender in this country.[5]

It is said that a person is innocent until proven guilty but when it comes to a man it’s exactly opposite. A man is always guilty until he’s proven innocent.

Conclusion

Men have begun sharing their desolation, torment, and badgering by ladies/companions. The time has come to perceive their concern as a social and general medical problem and foster proper systems and intercessions. They are not, at this point more grounded than ladies. They need assistance in emergency and family viciousness: Particularly savagery by a life partner is an emergency. Male casualties of viciousness can be saved/helped through suitable intercession, for example, acknowledgment of brutality against men by ladies as a general medical problem; helpline for the male survivors of savagery; and training, mindfulness, and legitimate protections.

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[1]Arpan Sinha, Women Protection and changing laws, Legal Services India, http://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/1818/Women-Protection-and-Changing-Laws.html

[2]Tanvi Dubey, Know your rights: 10 laws that protect women and their rights, Herstory (June 25, 2016) https://yourstory.com/2016/06/laws-that-protect-women-rights/amp

[3]Swarajya Staff, Man spends 20 years in jail on false rape and SC/ST Atrocities Charges, Couldn’t attend father’s funeral, Swarajya (Mar 2, 2021, IST 05:32 PM) https://swarajyamag.com/insta/man-spends-20-years-in-jail-on-false-rape-and-scst-atrocities-charges-couldnt-attend-fathers-funeral

[4]After 4 years of public shaming & struggle, Saravjeet Singh finally proven not guilty on Jasleen Kaur case, The Logical Indian, (25 Dec 2019) https://thelogicalindian.com/news/saravjeet-singh-jasleen-kaur/

[5]Riya Mishra, The gender advantage: women who misuse it & men who bears it, Reader’s Blog, (September 05, 2019 IST 21:39) https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/riyable/the-gender-advantage-women-who-misuse-it-men-who-bears-it-5475/