Misuse of Law?

Arkadev Ghoshal

Nagpur: Several motorcycleborne families, wearing black clothes, participated in a rally in Mumbai from Charni Road to Wilson College on Sunday afternoon. On the same day, several other families gathered at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to stage a dharna. Similar events were organised in Vishakhapattanam and Bengaluru.

The occasion was the second anniversary of the Domestic Violence Act (DVA) of 2005, and the families are those who claimed to have been a victim of the misuse of this Act as well as section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). They belong to the Save Indian Family Foundation, which helps families that have been torn apart by vindictive wives who utilised the two weapons to devastating effect.

Interestingly, these two laws, which are supposed to empower women, have not only struck husbands unfairly, but has been unjust towards other women as well, as was evident from the significant female participation in these protests. Their primary demand was justice for those victimised by DVA and 498A, and that, instead of the National Commission for Women, a commission for harmonic families be established.

There are around 55,000 families under the foundation, and all of them have similar stories to tell. And not all of them are from the metropolitan cities. Within three days of spreading its word amongst the masses in Chhattisgarh, the foundation received around a thousand queries, both over the phone and on its website www.saveindianfamily.org. Interestingly, 150 of them were from people who were employees of the Bhilai steel plant!

One such victim, Vanita Meshram (name changed) from Nagpur, recalls the harrowing night when, following a complaint from her brother’s wife, she and her husband were picked up from their home by the city police at 2.30 am in the morning. A housewife, Vanita had a three-yearold daughter at that time. On top of that she was also pregnant at that moment!

In reality, DVA and 498A are poles apart. The former aims at reconciliation and criminalisation of the violence as a last resort. On the other hand, section 498A of the IPC may directly land all the accused in jail, and the complainant needs to only name them. Despite this, both have apparently been used with equal wile on the part of a disgruntled and unscrupulous wife to land her husband and in-laws in prison though no fault of their own.

Take the instance of Tulsidas Reddy, a constable with the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) in Chhattisgarh. His wife alleged that she was being ill-treated by him, but despite his offers, not once but several times to take her back and lead a peaceful life, she refused to come home with their infant daughter. Had she come, it would have been another happy reunion brought about by the DVA, but it was not to be.

Not contented at having misguided the police with several complaints and false allegations, Reddy’s wife went so far as to lodge a complaint against him, causing the arrest of his pregnant sister and brother-in-law.

The incident ultimately led to the death (from hypertension) of Reddy’s father: he had already had a neurosurgery and the doctors had already asked him to steer clear of any kind of mental trauma.

It’s cases like these which the foundation works to avoid and prevent. Rajesh Wajkharia, who works with the Nagpur chapter of the foundation, explains how he is treated as a visitor in front of his own child. As for its future path, the organisation now plans to make a child’s life better when it comes to shared parenthood. Till then, the foundation is keeping on extending a helping hand to unfortunate families.