In gender equality we only consider is equality for women. Violence against men or equality for men is not something that we regularly read. It is uncommon in the society. Not so surprising but most of the time men refuse to come up about it.
Laws are also not supportive of crimes against men. That leads to unreported and unsupported cases. Violence and crimes against men by men and woman is not a new phenomenon and it will increase with changing power dynamics, economic independence, and control over the economy and resources.
Change in power dynamics will also affect relationships between men and women, where men are afraid of losing power and women are excited by their empowered position. For centuries women have suffered because of feebleness. Nowadays despite the balance in society by gradual change in power, it leads to crimes against men by women.
The term crimes against men refer to the mistreatment of a child or spouse, and includes not only physical harm but also menace and verbal, psychological and sexual assault.
Due to stereotyped gender roles, it is hardly believed by society that a woman can inflict violence on men. Due to this men are still not ready to speak of certain types of violence against them and they’re ignorant about any legal help to avoid this.
On comparing Data of India with other countries it was found that the violence and crimes against men in India are higher than other countries.
Types of Violence and Crimes against men
Violence affects a person’s life whether they are men or women. Across the world, the most common form of violence is domestic violence that affects any person’s life, physically, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically, and is a violation of basic human rights.
Physical violence
Physical violence includes slapping, pushing, hitting by wife, hard part parents or relatives, throwing objects like utensils, cell phones, and crockery at the husband. Slapping is the most common form of physical violence, beaten by weapon is the least common physical violence on men.
Psychological violence
Psychological violence includes mental abuse such as a constant threat to the husband and his family under false allegations of dowry and domestic violence. 85% of cases of abuse against men were criticism, 29.7% were insulted in front of others and 3.5% were threatened or hurt.
Sexual Abuse
Men can also be a victim of sexual assault where victimizer can be of same gender or of opposite gender. Sexual abuse includes sexual violence by wife if the husband denies sex, sexual assault by relatives, family member, colleague or stranger.
Forced Marriage
In many states, men are pressurized into weddings and they menaced to death because of that they could not say no to it. Innocent peoples usually target and pin down for the rest of their life as they marry a girl they even don’t know and persuade to look after her.
False Dowry cases
This is the most critical situation these days. Laws are very rigid for the crime of dowry. It is a good thing for women until they started exploitation of laws in their favor. There are multiple cases lodged by women of false dowry cases to menace husband and his family also to get interested in her marital life.
The sad part is there are rarely any cases where a man can prove his innocence and mostly are found guilty despite doing nothing. In many states amendments in law has done that include verifying men that are actually a culprit or not.
Crimes against men in India
At the workplace or at home to avoid punishment or to get some rewards, men too can be involved in sexual activity by force. In many states of India, a young man with good qualifications and income is abducted and forced to marry without his consent.
False rape, false dowry case, and other charges such as molestation are also common. Since law and society always traditionally favor females as the weaker sex, many times false complaints of sexual abuse/rape are lodged against men.
Socio-culture dimension of crimes against men
It has been observed that income education to middle-class nuclear family setup and alcohol but risk factors for violence and crimes against men. And earning spouse with education up to graduation was found to be the risk factor for BI directional physical violence.
Cost and socio-economic status were not found significantly associated with violence against men. It was observed that the couples where the spouse is educated up to graduation, physical violence can be committed by both spouses against each other.
Psychological dimensions of violence against men
Many women have serious anger management issues and because of this, they become aggressive, and verbal or physical abuse takes place. Women facing stress at the workplace have frustration and anger due to non-fulfillment of expectations and can indulge in violent behavior. Financial constraints due to the husband’s poor income and or more income by wife may also be one of the factors leading to violence.
Reasons why do men suffer silently
The primary reason is that they feel ashamed and thus do not report the cases.
Somehow men manage the stoicism against the violence done against them, their family persuades the victim to not do anything because men cannot depict themselves weak.
Women can use laws that are formed for their safety against innocent men by claiming fallacious charges towards men.
Effects of domestic violence against men
Violence affects life physically, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically. It is also a violation of basic human rights. Due to the fear of divorce, depression or suicide in extreme cases, men have denied reporting a crime.
It has been observed that suicide rates in married men armor in comparison to separated /unmarried men. Exposure to violence can increase the risk of smoking, alcoholism and drug abuse, mental illness, and suicidality, chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, harmful diseases such as AIDS, and Cancer.
Legal issues for crimes against men
In the legislature, there are no laws to protect men despite having data of crimes against men. All Law for controlling domestic violence considered women as victims. Anti-dowry laws, Dowry prohibition act 1961, and section 498(A) passed by the Supreme Court of India already show the concern and asked to stop the legal terrorism in France in the form of misuse of 498A and the necessary changes to be made by the parliament.
Need for gender neutral laws
In law, amendments should be done that include fallacious accused of dowry and violence on men. Men and women both will be included in human rights and gender equality. There will be no discrimination on the basis of gender in domestic violence cases and it is considered spousal violence.
Indian laws for domestic violence mainly include women. Many studies show men are also the victim of violence at the hand of women. In the Indian constitution, amendments should be done that include punishment for crimes against men.
By Puru Siddhu. “He has completed his Bachelor’s in Forensic science from Galgotias Univesity and is currently pursuing his Masters in Forensic Science from IRTE, Faridabad. completed the 5 weeks of Information security course from the University of London. He has completed 45 days of research internship with legal desire .”
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