• 12 03 24
• vedika chaubey
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‘MeN’ Too Are Victims of Domestic Violence

Being a Government servant, Abhilash (name changed) had never thought of getting beaten and harassed by his wife. He has been married for the last 8 years and tried all he could to save his marital knots but he couldn’t control the damage. Several male victims have come to me and told me the tragic stories of them being victimized at the hands of their own wives.
 
Abhilash’s story of being constantly humiliated and harassed was quite horrifying. To add to it, I came to know that his wife would even use a stick to beat him after he came home from work and went to sleep, at times even pinching him all over his body to harass him. I have filed multiple domestic violence cases to get justice to victimised women, but unfortunately, there's simply no law that could alleviate the plight Abhilash was facing, other than going for a divorce. Abhilash was extremely saddened to find this out, to a point that he considered suicide. This is something that I never want to see in any marital relationship. According to Abhilash, whenever he tried to ask her about her cruel behaviour towards him, she would straight up go outside their house and start screaming, “ye mujhe maar raha hai aur mera murder kar dega.”
 
There are very few people in our society who believes that domestic violence can take place against men as well. Most of the time, men fear shame and judgment from society as being wimpy or effeminate. Men also have a fear about the laws being biased against them in the constitution and various other criminal codes which would land them in jail despite them being the victims.
 
Furthermore, not all the sob stories we hear from women are true. Men too have their own stories to tell to the society and they are deserving of justice just as much as women are but the highly biased law in our country doesn’t permit them to tell their stories first. In today’s scenario, society is changing rapidly and it’s not only the men who are making decisions for the household and earning an income. Women are equal participants in everything from paying EMIs to buying groceries and medicines and even paying installments of the vehicles. So, now as equality in the socio-economic sphere is brought about, the legal bias towards women makes them even stronger. Some women seek equal participation of men in household work, failing this, they subject them to varied forms of mental and physical torture.
 
According to a report from USA, 1 out of 9 men face domestic violence from their wives. UK has every 2 out of 5 men as victims of domestic violence. If the British Crime Survey is to be believed, in the year 2004-05 to 2008-2009, 40% of the domestic violence victims were men. However, another report that surveyed 1000 married men in India within the age group of 21-49 years. Shockingly, 51.5% of men had faced domestic violence at the hands of their wives. Swapnil Vichare (name changed), a 31-year-old call center employee said, “Our country treats men in a very different light. They feel that a man can’t be a victim, which is not at all true. I have stayed with my wife for nearly 11 years and finally I have decided to flee away from my house to save myself.” Vichare has finally decided to get separated from his wife and has filed a divorce case in Thane court. “She never allowed me to touch her and used to go out late at night. One day I came early and then got the whole story. When I asked her, she started abusing me and started crying in front of the neighbors. Then she went on to call my friends claiming that I beat her black and blue,” adds Vichare. There are many such victims who have started to share their stories and breaking the stereotype that men are stronger and that they can’t be a victim. 
 
The Protection of Women under Domestic Violence Act, 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to protect women from Domestic Violence. It was brought into force by the Indian government on 26 October 2006. The DV Act is applicable to the whole of India. As per the Act, Domestic violence is defined by Section 3 of the Act as "any act, omission or commission or conduct of the respondent shall constitute domestic violence in case it:
1.     harms or injures or endangers the health, safety, life, limb or well-being, whether mental or physical, of the aggrieved person or tends to do so and includes causing physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal and emotional abuse and economic abuse; or
2.     harasses, harms, injures or endangers the aggrieved person to coerce her or any other person related to her to meet any unlawful demand for any dowry or other property or valuable security; or
3.     has the effect of threatening the aggrieved person or any person related to her by any conduct mentioned in clause (a) or clause (b); or
4.     otherwise injures or causes harm, whether physical or mental, to the aggrieved person."
 
This has always been a controversial topic and even courts have had to intervene a few times and acknowledged the victimization of men too. In the year 2018, the Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka, held that a petition under DV act by a husband can also be entertained in Mohd. Zakir v. Shabana & Ors case. The Hon’ble High Court also placed the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s judgment in the case of Hiral P. Harsora v. Kusum Narottamdas Harsora, wherein the Hon’ble Supreme Court while striking down a a portion of Section 2(a) of the Act (defining “aggrieved person”) on the ground that it is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and the phrase “adult male” as appearing in Section 2(q) of the Act stood deleted. However, the aforesaid verdict of High Court passed by Justice Anand Byrareddy was later on withdrawn by him when an Advocate opposed the verdict alleging that the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Hirala Harsora case had been wrongly interpreted by the Judge.
 
To conclude, I think violence has no gender and it’s high time that statutes and laws too should recognize this. Domestic violence against men should be recognized with additions and modifications in the laws. Stereotypes against them must be broken to save many such males from getting abused and humiliated.
 
(Advocate Vedika Chaubey can be reached at vedikachaubey@gmail.com)