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"My Choice" – Male Version

Women less happy after 40 years of feminism

Despite wealth, health and opportunity, men still more content says study by US National Bureau of Economic Research

On the long and winding road to having it all, Helen Parker is making good progress. At 27 she’s forging a career as an executive with a transport company in London, she has a steady boyfriend, and together they are buying a flat. One day the prospect of starting a family will beckon.

By many standards, she’s thriving. So is she happy?

“Um, I’m reasonably happy,” she said. “And I’m optimistic about the future. But there will always be sacrifices.

“There’s plenty more opportunities for women than there used to be — but then again, that means you are always questioning whether the moves you have made are correct, or whether you should have done something else.”

Like many women, her sense of wellbeing and life satisfaction do not match up with advances in social circumstances and material comforts. After 40 years of fighting for equality, it seems that women are no happier. In fact, women in many countries have been growing steadily unhappier compared with men, according to a study published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States.

In The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness, Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers of the University of Pennsylvania, begin by noting the gains.

“By many measures the progress of women over recent decades has been extraordinary: the gender wage gap has partly closed; educational attainment has risen and is now surpassing that of men; women have gained an unprecedented level of control over fertility; (and) technological change in the form of new domestic appliances has freed women from domestic drudgery,” they wrote.

Yet Stevenson and Wolfers have found that in America women’s happiness, far from rising, has fallen “both absolutely and relatively to that of men”. Where women in the 1970s reported themselves to be significantly happier than men, now for the first time they are reporting levels of happiness lower than men.

In Europe, people’s sense of happiness has risen slightly, but less so for women than men. In 12 European countries, including Britain, the happiness of women has fallen relative to that of men.

The authors readily admit that measuring happiness is necessarily a subjective task, but the overall trend from the data, compiled from social surveys conducted over many years, is clear and compelling.

The work builds on earlier research by Andrew Oswald, professor of economics at Warwick University, who has a particular interest in the study of happiness. He said: “What Betsey and Justin have done, which is a valuable addition, is to show that the trend is found rather widely. For most of the post-war era, happiness surveys showed women noticeably happier than men. That difference has now eroded to zero.”

The big question is: why?

When measures of women’s happiness started to dip, some sociologists reached for a simple solution known as the “second shift”. Women’s opportunities in paid employment had increased, but their domestic load had not correspondingly reduced. The belief was that they were going out to work then doing a “second shift” at home — no wonder they weren’t ecstatic.

Sorry, that won’t wash, say Stevenson and Wolfers. Surveys of how individuals spend their time show that for both men and women total work hours (combining paid or domestic) have declined since 1965.

Yes, women’s hours of “market work” have increased, but that has been offset by “large declines in their non-market work”. At the same time “men are now working fewer hours in the market and more hours in home production”.

On a purely statistical basis, women can’t argue their burden has got worse or is now drastically unequal.

However, more subtle influences should be considered, argues Dame Joan Bakewell, the broadcaster, because women’s emotional responses to the change in circumstances are different from those of men.

“Women do stub their toes on the work-life balance much more than men,” she said. “Even if they have solved it (in practical terms), they worry about it.

“So they are probably going to say, ‘Well, I’m not as happy as I could be because I’m carrying this burden of worry’.”

Others suggest that the pay gap between men and women, even if it has narrowed, is still a grievance.

Karen Pine, professor of developmental psychology at Hertfordshire University and author of Sheconomics, said: “When I have talked to women about their emotional relationship with money, for many there was still a feeling that they didn’t deserve more.

“Women have been socialised to be people-pleasers. They don’t want to appear greedy or grabbing. When they have to adopt an assertive attitude to money — asking for what they are worth — many of them experience a conflict.”

Studies do show that money is an important factor in happiness: the well-off are happier than the very poor. However, that effect tails off once basic needs are met. The phenomenon is reflected in a recent study by Pine of 700 women and their attitudes to shopping and spending money.

“Years ago women didn’t have independent incomes, and now many of them are financially independent,” she said. “What I found was that 79% — an alarming statistic — told me they would go on a spending spree in order to cheer themselves up.

“Many women are using shopping and spending as a way of regulating emotions.”

Spending, however, doesn’t buy happiness. “Many of them described a buzz at the time, but it was short-lived,” said Pine. “Then they experienced buyer’s remorse and came down to earth with a bump.”

Stevenson and Wolfers also point out that over the past two decades many men, as well as women, have experienced financial concerns. “The real wages (after inflation) of many men fell during much of this period,” they said. Yet it is women whose happiness has notably changed.

If money is not the key, what about families? Divorce rates and cohabitation have soared over the time in which women’s happiness has fallen. However, if they are important factors, say researchers, more unhappiness should be found among single mothers and the separated.

Stevenson and Wolfers concluded the relative decline in women’s happiness “is irrespective of the age, marital, labour market or fertility status of the group analysed”.

There is, of course, the possibility that women are simply being more direct about their happiness than they used to be. As the authors note: “Women may now feel more comfortable being honest about their true happiness and have thus deflated their previously inflated responses.”

However, the international scale of the trend seems to militate against this.

Though nobody has isolated a convincing reason for the decline in women’s happiness, there is a consensus of sorts. As Oswald put it: “The lead theory is that women’s lives have become more complicated in many dimensions, unlike men who have to balance a smaller number of balls.

“It is probably still true that men do fewer things well.”

Pine agreed: “One can always point to increasing pressures on women. We are now trying to have careers and families and look good for longer. It may be that in trying to have it all we are feeling that we may have set ourselves an impossible goal.”

Complexity is stressful — and women’s supposed skills at multi-tasking are no remedy.However, critics of feminism take a more sceptical view. Complexity is not the problem, they say: it’s more to do with women discovering that “equality” with male life is not all it was cracked up to be.

To the writer Neil Lyndon, author of No More Sex War, it is a vindication of his view that feminists have long been blind to the stresses of male life. “(Feminists) are so determined to insist that women are in a position of inequality and disadvantage, they cannot see that to repair the disadvantages of women you also have to address the inequalities of men,” he said.

“Men who are in work and have young children want to spend more time with their families. Feminists cannot see that. The ideology itself requires you to say that women are in a position of disadvantage, that it’s a society run by men for the benefit of men, and that there can’t be disadvantages for men.”

Women have got themselves into an impossible position, Lyndon suggests, and it won’t be remedied until there is proper equality and until no parent — man or woman — is expected, as many men are, “to go to work at 7am and get back at 9pm”.

Amid all this hypothesising and argument, what should a pragmatist do? Siobhan Freegard, founder of the website Netmums, discovered her own measure of how women’s happiness has declined. A survey of her site users indicated that levels of the “baby blues” experienced by new mothers have risen sharply since 30 years ago. So she set about asking experts to formulate a programme to help.

“In our research one key problem that emerged was that we all move around a lot now,” said Freegard. “About 60% of women no longer live near their extended family and the same proportion of women haven’t replaced that family support with a new social network. The whole breakdown of community is a factor.

“So we set people tasks. Be part of networks. Join groups. Speak to an old lady. Talk to your shopkeeper. Phone someone you haven’t had a good chat with for ages and so on.”

The happiness of participants was tested before and after the programme — and at the end they were on average 16% happier.

Might such ordinary, everyday connections be more important to happiness than impossible dreams to have it all? Freegard suspects that might be the case.

“We pushed so hard for equal rights, for having the right to work, for having equal status, we pushed hard to have choice,” she said. “But what we hear back from many mums is: I have no choice, I have to work, I don’t love my career, my childminder is taking half my salary and I’d rather bring up my children myself but I can’t afford to.

“I’m not saying women shouldn’t work. If you enjoy your job and it’s a fulfilling career, that is a positive choice. But if it’s not . . . it’s almost in some ways that we got it all, then found that actually it wasn’t quite what we wanted.”

Vote for any party but not for Congress

Dear all Indian Husbands and their Family Members, Vote for any party, but not for Congress. Nowadays more than 57000 Indian Husbands are ending their lives in suicide every year due to the anti-husband, anti-family and anti-child biased and lopsided marital laws like Section 498A / Domestic Violence Act / CRPC125 / Adultery law / four different maintenance laws, all passed by the Congress. The entire family of Husbands has been converted into a Free ATM machine and they are being treated worse than an animal in this country due to all biased and lopsided law and policy by the Congress party. Inspite of The Honorable Supreme Court terming the Misuse of Section 498A as “Unleashing of a new Legal Terrorism on innocent husband’s family” and Domestic Violence Act as “one of the most clumsy drafted law”, the Congress led UPA government has not taken any corrective action and the entire family of husbands is suffering today because of that.  Whether the allegations are true or false, it’s merely on the basis of the verbal allegation of the wife (read married woman), that the entire family of husbands including his mother, sister (again read married women) are thrown out of their house under the Domestic Violence Act. Through this Domestic Violence Act, the Congress party has incited a woman vs. woman war and the price is paid by Indian men.  Just the wives need to say that, “I am anticipating Domestic Violence” from my partner (Men), be it a friend or any one and the man is thrown out of his own house and lands up in Railway Platform; as also the bank accounts will be frozen. Now it is up to the accused to prove her allegations are wrong in the court and she need not prove anything as her verbal allegations are construed as evidence, since the Congress led UPA Government thinks that all the wives / Daughter-in-law are born in Raja Harish Chandra’s Family, and hence can’t lie.  Do you know who has given wholesale free License to your wife to commit adultery and at the same time go scot free? – Congress. Do you know who has given wholesale free license to your wife to abuse your age old parents and sisters and at the same time go scot free? – Congress. Do you know who has given wholesale free license to your wife to throw out you and your old parents from their own home? – Congress. Do you know who has given wholesale free license to your wife to kill your un-born child and go scot free? – Congress. Do you know who has given wholesale free license to your wife to refuse to visit your own child once in a week at least? – Congress. Do you know even a terrorist have right to stay in his own home, but Indian husbands do not have any right to stay in his own home , if wife demand the same under Domestic Violence act and who has made such a law ? – Congress. Do you know who has given wholesale free license to your wife to beat, abuse, and refuse food to your child and you can’t even ask her a single question, as it will be termed as verbal abuse? – Congress. Do you know if your wife demand 1000 rupees for her kitty party and you give 800, it is a crime by you as per law and who made such law? – Congress. This is the state of the present Justice system in India and Gender Equality in India, a feat achieved by the Congress Government in the last 60 years.  For a wife even adultery is not a crime (it is a rewarding option and tax free money earning business for the whole life), but for a man even an allegation of “Name-calling” is crime and not only the man, his mother/sister/old father also can be put behind the bars under 498A or Domestic Violence Act. And such laws are made with the tax-payer’s hard-earned money, 82% of which comes from men. Well educated, working and healthy women (read wives) are rushing to the courts to demand aristocratic maintenance from their husbands to maintain their lavish lifestyles, by leveling false allegations as is evident from court records and at the same time do not miss a chance (provided by the Congress led UPA Government) to file false criminal cases under Section 498A, Domestic Violence Act, mentioning that their husband is ill-treating them and demanding money from them. However, the wives themselves openly demand money as a legal extortion and blackmailing and the police, the media and the courts are mute spectators or at time active participants in squandering husband’s money. And all this drama happens under the nose of the Congress led UPA Government which sits on the abuse of Indian men, especially husbands and is hell bent on passing one after another anti-male extortionary laws. On the contrary, if a husband is not able to earn money due to some reason or falls terminally ill, and his wife is earning money, yet he is not eligible for maintenance from his wife, irrespective of the fact that he had earned lacks of rupees and given to his wife prior to becoming disabled and such a man is told to either sell his body organs or go and commit suicide. Such a biased attitude is being meted out to Indian men under the Congress led UPA Government. So the question arises: Is Indian Husband is a Free ATM Machine for Indian wives? As per Congress the answer is:  Yes. It is pertinent to mention here that, presently a wife can claim maintenance from four different Laws, like Section 24 Hindu Marriage Act, Section 125 CrPC, Section 18 Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act and Domestic Violence act. This is abuse and wastage of resources for the Indian Judiciary System (which always cries foul of being overburdened), since for the same purpose, three to four different cases are filed in different courts sometimes across states. It not only wastes the Judiciary’s man Power, but is also a violation of Indian constitution, wherein it is clearly mentioned in Article 20, that for the same offence a person can’t be punished/tried more than once. Then why do we have four different maintenance cases against a Husband for the same alleged cause of action? ·  Crime Bureau data 2005: Married Men Suicide: 52k vs. Married Women Suicide 28K.Still there is no LAW to Protect Men why? ·  2006 Crime Bureau Data: Married Men Suicide: 55452 vs. Married Women Suicide: 29869. ·  2007 Crime Bureau Data: Married Men Suicide: 57593 vs. Married Women Suicide: 30064. Will Our LAW Maker change the section 304B of the IPC related to dowry deaths to section 304C (Sowry Death) and Section 498A (harassment to wife) to 498B (Sowry harassment by wife)? We have repeatedly requested the Congress led UPA Government by providing all the data and official statistics of suffering of Indian men in general and husbands in particular and demanded that all Gender Biased LAW should immediately be made crime based void of any assumption that women never lie and men are born as Criminals. "MEN/WOMEN" word to be replaced by word "PERSON" and word wife/husband to be replaced with the word "SPOUSE". But it has fallen on deaf ears of the Congress led UPA Government and in return the Union minister for Women and Child Development makes the following derogatory statements against Indian men while being in office: ·         It’s turn to suffer the Indian men, as women suffered for long. (Like as Muslim Kings had destroyed a lot of temple, so let’s demolish the entire Mosque in India). ·         Don’t trust Your Men; trust Condom in the name of reducing AIDS. (Forgetting the fact that the AIDS spreads by multiple partner sex and a condom is used for multiple partner sex, not for single partner sex, which we term as married couple) ·         It’s Diwali Gift to Indian women. (Within two weeks, four women sent behind the bars under first DV act case in Pune and one age old women left her own house as her daughter-in-law walk in her house with her all friends and parents)  Readers may choose to vote for Congress and ensure that more and more suffering follows for Indian men. Since it’s not only Congress, but all political parties believe that increasing the suffering of Husbands and their family members is termed as Social Service in the country since Indian Husbands and their family members cannot ensure their defeat or a reduction in their vote share. So making more and more anti-husband, anti-family, anti-child and anti-men biased and lopsided law in the country is not going to harm them. The Choice is with you and do not forget that only the crying baby gets the milk. Congress government has converted the Indian Criminal Justice system into a wholesale free money earning business through Legal Extortion from Husbands and their family members. Vote for any party, but not for congress and give a clear message that anti-husband, anti-men, anti-family and anti-child law and policy will not be accepted in this country by political party. Disclaimer: These are totally writer’s personal views. Readers may have a different opinion. The name and place has been changed to protect the Person’s Identity.

 

Appraisal and Audit of Indian Bureaucracy

Harsh reality of India being depicted in The New York Times article should not evoke any surprises as more realities of India are going to be revealed in the following article. A glimpse of the article is given below,

This is a picture of an under-nourished child in India. The Ministry of Women and Child Development has probably forgotten about the children of the country and that is why this starvation is not getting addressed in India. In its over-enthused spirit to do women empowerment and safeguarding the rights of “Pub Going Loose and Forward Women”, it has actually forgotten that it had to look after the welfare of children as well who are totally left to live in an under-nourished fatherless society, which is again being created due to the efforts of the same Women and Child Development Ministry.

And here’s an unrelated incident to highlight as to why such gory misdeeds are coming to forth. It clearly shows the lackadaisical attitude with which these so called Babus of ministries work. A concerned citizen had filed an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 for personal inspection of file records related to the proposed Sexual Harassment Bill. When he went to inspect the records, the behavior of the officer there, who is an IAS cadre officer, Mr. M. R. Mohanty, Director of Women and Child Development Ministry, was very rude. Already the RTI activist had been given the usual complacent treatment with regards to the appointment for personal inspection of file records.

This is what allegedly transpired,

“The behavior of the PIO (an IAS) was very rude and uncooperative. He just showed me three files as all the records for sexual harassment bill in the ministry. I asked him many questions and based on his own answer i asked, where are those documents where all what you just said is documented? He got irritated and even started talking like a goon.

He said “RTI? Kyaa phansi thode hi chadha doge.” (RTI? Will you hang me?)”

Now I need not say more, that with this kind of attitude, what development the citizens can expect from the Bureaucracy of India? Worst is that the bureaucracy is paid by the taxes paid by the citizens. Do the citizens pay taxes for this kind of attitude and treatment?

From a very simple logic, the bureaucracy is the service provider and the citizens are the customers. But the quality of service provided by these Babus is far less than what the clients deserve.

Why the disparity? What is lacking? What more needs to be done in a system that is built on the worlds largest and probably the best Constitution?

And the buzzwords that start doing the rounds are not unfamiliar,

1. Sense of accountability
2. Implementation
3. Sense of responsibility

And so on and so forth.

Prior to 15^th June 2005, the citizens were powerless as there was no official channel to question the Babus and their ‘activities’ to bring about transparency in the system. But come 15^th June 2005 and the Right to Information Act 2005 received the presidential consent and became the law of the land, empowering citizens to demand information from the Babus about their functioning and play a participants role rather than a spectator.

Fourth year in its execution, still there is very low awareness and respect among the Babus regarding the Act. Many still don’t even know something like this exists. I have heard experiences of Govt. officials addressing it as “RIT”, in shock and disbelief, as they are made to work by the Stupid Common Man, the same Stupid Common Man they ruled for years beings its servants, the Public Servants.

In spite of the law being there and being used as well, the scenario remains grim, Why?

Because periodic and systematic audit and appraisal is missing from the system, an audit that ensures performance is missing. It is worthwhile to note here that Corporates are highly successful in execution, implementation and performance because of their ruthlessness as far as performance is considered.

In most of the Corporates there is a quarterly appraisal system carried out which evaluates the performance of an individual and sets the goals for the next quarter and accordingly ratings are given. If consistently ratings drop, then warnings are issued to improve performance and may even end up in termination of job. However, since there is no such model available in the bureaucracy as of now, the quality of service is pathetically poor.

The Right to Information Act, though being there, is based on a reactive model. The damage is already done, it is merely being exposed. And the fear of exposure no longer works for these thick skinned Babus, who are now used to the usual tactics which are well within the framework.

The call of the day is a pro-active model which is so designed that it tells the bureaucrats before hand as to what can be the consequences of a non-performance and a callous attitude. Such pro-active models can only be built in by bringing in the “Appraisal and Audit Model” wherein there is at least bi-annual evaluation of performance if not quarterly and that audit should not be done by any Govt. Body otherwise it’s like curing the cancer with the cancerous cells.

That audit has to be done by state level committees formed of the ordinary citizens, the Stupid Common Man, as they are the clients of this huge and humungous system. Once this system is in place, the Babus will fear for a ‘pink slip’ from their paymasters aka the Stupid Common Man and this fear will make them work.

Marriage broken irretrievably? Grant Divorce

The Honorable Supreme Court has recently ruled that Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage is no ground for divorce in a ruling. Taking strong exception to the same, the Law Commission has ruled that, the same should be made a ground for divorce. As is evident both views being contradictory to each other, either one of them are beneficial to the society and citizenry at large.

Marriage is a social institution and is the first step towards the formation of family. It gives the people, the much needed support to face the adversaries of life and is a source of happiness for any individual. However, when there is a clash of expectations between individuals and hidden agendas are involved or the mutual trust between partners is broken, the marriage ceases to exist in spirit and remains only on papers.

Irretrievable breakdown of marriage has not been laid down as a ground of divorce in Hindu Marriage Act; however there have been judgments where divorce has been granted on the same basis by the Honorable Supreme Court. But very recently, as mentioned, the Honorable Supreme Court denied divorce on the same grounds saying the law does not permit it. Analysis of the contradictions led to serious revelations. The divorces granted on “Irretrievable Breakdown of marriage” were those demanded by wives while the one recently rejected was demanded by husband.

This is nothing short of discrimination against husbands by the Honorable Supreme Court and is a defeat of human rights of husbands. Be it a man or a woman, a right to peaceful and dignified life is an unchallengeable one and has to be respected at any cost. End of marriage is not the end of life and if two people, after having married to each other are not happy with each other and all means of restoring their marriage have been exhausted, one does not see any reason not to grant them divorce and allow them to move on in life.

A relationship is meant to give support to an individual in a social context and not to form a burden and all relationships are quintessentially trust based. If the trust dies, so does the relation, maintaining it on papers is another fallacy like the relationship itself? A true and mature relationship is one, where even if there is a tiff between the partners, the same can be resolved by making one phone call no matter who makes the call. If any relationship fails this One Phone Call Test, it is better called off and that too in a manner which ensures happiness and mental peace for both the partners.

The Law Commission must be lauded for being so quick in responding to the call of making “Irretrievable Breakdown of marriage” a ground for divorce and calling upon the Center to consider the amendment to Hindu Marriage Act. This call is a triumph of human rights, especially for men, whose rights are often trampled in an over enthused spirit of Women Empowerment which unfortunately is not synonymous with Male Entrapment, the way currently it is being executed.

Save Indian Family Foundation, an NGO dedicated to promote Family Harmony and Gender Equality urges the Center to consider amending the Hindu Marriage Act for including “Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage” as a ground for divorce.

Press Release voicing the concerns of Forgotten Women

Press Release

Sub: Raising voice of women forgotten in the Empowerment Brigade.

In the year 1910, Clara Zetkin, a German women’s rights advocate, proposed that “every year, in every country, there should be a celebration on the same day - a Women's Day - to press for their demands”. Ever since, International Women’s Day is being observed in various countries across the world.

In order to press for our demands that have been ignored and brushed aside by mainstream women’s organizations, lawmakers and our elected representatives, we, the members of All India Forgotten Women (AIFW) and Mothers and Sisters Initiative (MASI), are organizing a Dharna on the occasion of International Women’s Day, 8 March 2009, in front of the office of the National Commission of Women between 10:00 am and 1:30 pm.

In India, we not only have a Ministry dedicated to women’s welfare but also a National Commission for Women and several regional and local organizations representing the cause of women.

The Government of India is constantly doling out pro-women policies in the name of providing equal rights, imparting education, improving health, and encouraging women’s participation in all walks of life. It has passed several laws in the name of addressing problems such as dowry harassment, dowry death,  marital cruelty, domestic violence, rape, indecent representation of women, to name a few.

Women’s rights activists have been successful in pressuring the police, judiciary and media to take a lenient approach towards women and grant them special privileges compared to men. They constantly remind women of their “hard won” rights and privileges in the society, and the need to protect and exercise them.

In spite of all the above, we continue to hear that the status of women in the country is only worsening every day. One is bound to wonder why granting more and more privileges and protections to women would lead to worsening of the status of women in the society? Here is why:

The Ministry of Women and Child Development, the National Commission for Women and other powerful women’s organizations comprise of radical feminists who are anti-men and anti-family. These radical feminists have become self-appointed authorities who determine what is good for all women in the country, and have assumed proprietary rights on the drafting and implementation of all policies and laws related to women. In their regime, spread of anti-male sentiments and superficial appeasement of women take precedence over real empowerment of women. Laws pushed by radical feminists under the guise of empowering women are, in reality, weapons that facilitate abuse by women, violate basic human rights of men, women and children and promote family destruction.

In the last four years, over 123,497 women have been arrested under IPC Section 498A alone, without evidence or investigation, not for committing any crime under law, but only because they were related to a man. The recently amended Section 41 of CrPC, which redefines police powers of arrest, imposes greater accountability on the law enforcement machinery while carrying out arrests, and ensures that unnecessary arrests are avoided. While these amendments represent a step in the right direction to uphold basic human rights and constitutional rights of men and women, radical feminists are opposing these amendments. They parrot exaggerated statistics of crimes and injustices against women, label them as gender-driven discrimination and abuse, and press for draconian legislations that penalize the innocent.

Does penalizing innocent women under false cases bring justice to genuinely abused women?

Recent data from the National Crime Records Bureau indicates that nearly twice as many married men, compared to married women, commit suicide every year, unable to withstand verbal, emotional, economic and physical abuse and legal harassment. While every death of a young married woman is converted into a case of dowry death, leading to immediate arrest of the husband and in-laws, large-scale suicides of men are completely ignored. While husbands and their relatives are under constant suspicion leading to frequent violation of their basic human rights, wives are rarely ever questioned leave alone prosecuted if a husband dies or ends his life under similar circumstances. Suicides of men only make for the brief stories we often read in newspapers stating that a certain man “killed himself due to family issues or financial problems”. No Ministry has been set up to support our sons and brothers. No laws have been passed to protect them from abuse.

Is the pain of a mother who lost a son to domestic abuse or legal terrorism any less than that of a

mother who lost a daughter?

Radical feminists disparaged the Indian family as oppressive and Indian men as abusive, and portrayed the streets as far safer for women than their own homes. They have urged women to break free from the slavery of home, family and childrearing, and, instead, become slaves of government and corporate enterprises. Not surprisingly, radical feminists have neither been able to ensure the security nor the happiness that they had promised to women outside the home. They now cry foul saying that crimes and abuses against women have only been increasing. Notwithstanding the fact that men and women are equally vulnerable to violence and crime committed by members of either sex, radical feminists claim that crime against women is gender-driven, thus, pitting women against men in the society.

Does inciting a gender war solve women’s problems within and outside the home?

Radical feminists even went a step further to promote chaos in the society by pitting women against women. They introduced IPC Section 498A which allows arrests and jailing of innocent mothers and sisters of men based on a mere complaint by a disgruntled daughter-in-law. They introduced the Domestic Violence (DV) Act which allows a daughter-in-law to evict her mother-in-law out of her own property and render her homeless. If you think this is outrageous, here is the coup de gras: on the one hand radical feminists demanded that adultery be treated as a crime when committed by men. On the other hand, they demanded that adulterous women be considered as victims and not penalized under criminal law. They ensured that the DV Act empowers a wife to violate marital norms with impunity and also claim residence and maintenance rights in spite of being unfaithful to the husband. Through the DV Act they also sought to grant live-in partners and concubines the same legal status as a legally wedded wife. The end result is that the protections and privileges, granted to a live-in-partner or concubine, violate the rights of a legally wedded wife and dependent female members of a man’s family.

Does women's equality mean empowerment of morally bankrupt women at the expense of

responsible, family-loving women?

The Ministry of Women and Child Development claims that safeguarding the interests of children is paramount in its agenda. However, the same Ministry has left no stone unturned to ensure that children are mercilessly torn away from fathers in cases of marital separation or divorce. The Ministry pushed the DV Act which even allows for the passing of ex-parte orders to take away the custody of a child from the father without a just and fair enquiry to assess the suitability of guardianship by either or both parents. The Act includes provisions for passing of restraining orders that eliminate all contact between a father and child, only based on the self-serving statements of a vindictive wife. Thus, the DV Act violates a child’s right to the love and affection of both parents, and promotes a fatherless society.

Does women’s empowerment mean destroying family harmony and creating a fatherless society?

Radical feminists raise a hue and cry about dowry harassment by husbands and in-laws and portray India as a country where brides are routinely burned for dowry. They spread paranoia about how unsafe women are in their marital homes because of the “evil practice” of dowry. The same radical feminists do not oppose extravagant marriages or giving of dowry. Consequently, the ever increasing marriage related expenses in the present consumerist economy are causing mortal fear in the minds of parents about giving birth to a girl. Radical feminists who turn a blind eye to excessive marriage expenditures and giving of dowry, but indulge in alarmism about dowry harassment are, in fact, promoting female feticide and discrimination against the female child. These very feminists turn around and blame all the problems of their own creation on what they call the “male-dominated society” in order to garner funds from international agencies, and also to lobby for more stringent anti-male laws that aid legal terrorism and violation of basic human rights.

Is the cause of women’s empowerment synonymous with Gobbelian propaganda, legal terrorism

and human rights violations?

Radical feminists, who claim to represent the interests of all women, have been pushing for more and more rights and privileges, disregarding how many existing rights, opportunities and privileges are poorly utilized and even quite often misused by women. They advocate rights and privileges for women without prescribing any concomitant duties or responsibilities towards the family and society. Consequently, today, there are more women who are separated or divorced. There are more women indulging in illicit relationships. There are more unwanted pregnancies. There are more women raising fatherless children. There are more literate but uneducated and morally bankrupt women, who are living parasitic lives by siphoning money away from an estranged husband or partner. There are more women who abuse laws to destroy families and the society, as they themselves self-destruct.

Is this the notion of women’s empowerment that hard-working, self-respecting and individualistic

women subscribe to?

It will not be an exaggeration to state that the Ministry of Women and Child Development and organizations like the National Commission for Women are protecting the interests of unscrupulous women, while the rest of the society pays the price.

The recent Mangalore pub incident and the responses of radical feminists represent another good example of women’s empowerment gone awry.

In the past, when rural women destroyed liquor shops and beat up men who drank or sold alcohol, they became heroes and their acts were cheered. Achieving prohibition was seen as a victory of the women’s movement and a sign of women’s empowerment. In the recent times, the Minister of Women and Child Development dealt a death blow to the women’s movement by championing urban women’s right to frequent pubs and drink as a token of their empowerment and equality with men. The National Commission for Women seems to be more passionate about protecting women indulging in the luxury of drinking alcohol in pubs, while 30% of Indian women still walk up to 10 kilometers everyday to fetch a pot of drinking water, which is a basic necessity.

It has become crystal clear that radical feminists only create more problems in the name of solving existing ones. They can neither device nor support sustainable solutions, policies and laws which will actually benefit women because if the status of women improves, the gender card will be rendered redundant, and can longer be used to reap any political or financial gains. The survival of radical feminist outfits and politicians who dance to their tunes depends on stoking anti-male sentiments, destroying the family and creating chaos in the society.

It is high time sensible, responsible and enlightened women take charge of the situation and restore sanity in the society before things go out of hand. All India Forgotten Women (AIFW) and Mothers and Sisters Initiative (MASI) comprise of women who work towards promoting family harmony and true gender equality, with the goals of maintaining social stability and nurturing responsible citizens in the country.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2009, we make the following demands to the Government of India:

·         We demand immediate implementation of CrPC Amendments 2008 to protect us and our dear ones from legal terrorism and human rights violations.

·         We demand equal protection to men and women under law.

·         We demand laws and policies that promote family harmony.

·         We demand severe penalty for anyone misusing legal provisions to settle personal scores.

·         We demand that balanced, responsible, family-loving women are given charge of the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the National Commission for Women.

·         We demand a Ministry for Men to cater to the needs and welfare of our brothers and sons.

We request esteemed members of the print and electronic media to join us and provide unprecedented coverage for our event.

Event supported by:

www.savefamily.org, www.saveindianfamily.org, www.mynation.net, www.protectindianfamily.org, www.ghrs.in