From India with Love

As a citizen of India I here by put forward the following demands for your kind consideration:

1. All the general laws and special acts be made gender neutral in true compliance with Article 14 of The Constitution of India to establish equality before law, including but not limited to, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) and Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill. All occurrences of word ‘he/she’ be replaced with ‘person’ and all occurrences of word ‘wife/husband’ be replaced with ‘spouse’
2. Implement complete judicial reforms including but not limited to make erring judges accountable.
3. Establish National Commission for Men and Boys.
4. Establish Ministry of Men and family Development.
5. Remove the ban on men to contest in panchayat and municipal elections that has been imposed in certain constituencies so as to maintain free and fair elections, one of the basic principles of democracy.
6. Repeal or amend outdated and socially unfit laws. The following are some of the suggestions:-

Section / Act Reason

IPC 498(a) Rampant misuse of this section has already been recognized by the Supreme court, President and parliament. Since the enactment of Dowry Prohibition Act not even a single person has been ever convicted for giving dowry. It is prudent to believe there is no dowry harassment in the present society and it has become an open secret that this section is been used only for blackmailing and extortion and therefore needs to be repealed.

Dowry Prohibition Act Since enactment not even a single person has ever been convicted for giving dowry which shows this Act is no longer needed in 21st Century

IPC 497 Adultery has been given legal recognition after the enactment of PWDVA through women’s right to maintenance and residence from the man who is engaged in the said act and therefore needs to be repealed.

IPC 494 Since PWDVA ensures all the rights of married women to the live-in and sex partner’s, bigamy law has no relevance any more.

IPC 383, 384, 385, 386, 387, 388, 389 Legislator has given legal status to extortion of men through PWDVA, CrPC 125, Hindu Marriage Act Sec 24, Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act sec 19 regardless of the earnings or earning potential of women. IPC498a is been used solely for extortion and courts are pushing for out-of-court ‘settlement’ too. Under these circumstances these sections should either be repealed or the word ‘person’ be amended to ‘woman’.

IPC 361 India Govt has set up special entities called Family Courts to ensure fathers have no custody of their own kids. More over personal law has already been amended to include mother as guardian. Therefore Kidnapping from lawful guardianship sounds odd. This section should either be repealed or the word ‘Whoever’ should be replace with ‘Any man’; also ‘lawful guardian’ should be replace with ‘female guardian’ to avoid mockery of legal system.

IPC 304B. Since 1961 India Govt has no records to support the existence of dowry practice. Therefore it is prudent to believe that there is no dowry death too. If it all there exists any unnatural death that could be for some other reason and can also be husband. Redefine it as ‘Unnatural Spousal Death’ to include protection for husbands as well.

IPC 312, 313, 315, 316 NCW along with Women and Child Ministry often complain about huge amount of female feticide and female infanticide, but we don’t have even miniscule amount of convictions under these sections, which means either these laws are ineffective or what NCW & WCD claim is wrong. Therefore these sections need to be repealed or amended in order to avoid its misuse by disgruntled women who want to wreck vengeance on husband and in laws.

IPC 354 Outraging the modesty of women has been commercialized through monetary reliefs in PWDVA and Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill. Therefore punishment under this section is mockery of Indian justice system and should be addressed accordingly.

Source: http://prassoon.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/open-letter-to-members-of-parliament/