The issue of harassment of men at the hands of their wives has reached an alarming state in India. So say, the representatives of Save Indian Family Foundation, an association claiming to fight for “the cause of Indian men”. Citing select statistics, observations of the Supreme Court of India, contemporary movie references and some deeply disturbing real life instances, the organisation, which held a press conference in Chandigarh on Thursday, claims to highlight the issues of gender discrimination in India and harassment being faced by aggrieved husbands and their families.

The organisation’s speakers said that in the last few years, 22,000 Indian men have committed suicide due to dowry law harassment. During the same period, around 6,800 married women ended their lives. “This is not data collected from random sources. All the statistics we are citing have been gleaned from the National Crime Records Bureau,” claimed a spokesperson of the organisation.

In the last three years, around 7,000 Indian husbands have been put behind bars without any investigation, he said. Over 68 per cent of them were later found innocent. “What is appalling is that in case of 22,000 suicides by men, only six cases were registered against the wives,” said Vikas Kapoor, an activist of the organisation.

The conference also featured two first hand experiences of harassment. In one case from Saharanpur, a family narrated its harrowing experience, where their son married a girl, who, as was later revealed, was divorced and claiming maintenance from her former husband. When the family objected, the girl levied allegations of dowry harassment against the entire extended family of the boy. The matter was resolved only after a hefty amount was paid to the woman in an ‘out of court settlement’.

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