THE NRI EYE: Deserted wives or ditched husbands: Who to pity?

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=India&month=August2007&file=World_News200708207520.xml

 
THE NRI EYE: Deserted wives or ditched husbands: Who to pity?

Web posted at: 8/20/2007 7:52:0
Source ::: The Peninsula / By Moiz Mannan

What about the poor Gulf Malayalee who finds out one fine morning that ! his pretty young bride married him only for his wealth and that she now wants to leave him and spend the rest of her life by bleeding him of alimony? Not fair, you'd say. Yet, more and more of the fair sex are now said to be looking at non-resident Indian grooms either as a stepping stone to a visa if in the West or a lifetime of easy maintenance money if in the Gulf.

Even as a parliamentary committee has called for stricter norms to protect Indian women from being exploited by 'unscrupulous' NRI husbands, a non-governmental organisation has demanded steps to curb the misuse by self-seeking brides of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women tabled in its report on the "Plight of Indian Women Deserted by NRI Husbands" before the Lok Sabha last week. It has asked the government to consider enactment of uniform personal laws for all religious communities on marriage/divorce, maintenance, property rights and related issues and incorporate special provisions in them with regard to NRI marriages.

The committee, chaired by Congress MP Krishna Tirath, has also desired that all marriages, irrespective of religion, be compulsorily registered. "In marriages with NRIs, such registration will not only help a woman fight her case if deserted, but also enable the Embassy to have full information about the marriage while keeping a track of the erring NRI husband," it said.

It may be recalled that the Women and Child Development Ministry, has already proposed a law for making registration of marriages compulsory for all religions. The Law Ministry is understood to be of the view that registration of marriages should be compulsory for only Hindus.

The committee suggested that the marriage certificate for NRI marriages be issued in duplicate to facilitate deserted women to fight their legal battles, that the government should take immediate steps to become signatory to the Hague Conventions, especially the ones related to NRI marriages, and that the government should enter reciprocal bilateral treaties with countries where Indian diaspora is in large number to deal exclusively with cases of fraudulent NRI marriages.

The report has recommended that special cells be set up with Indian missions abroad to address problem NRI marriages. It also suggested that the Indian Passport Act be amended to incorporate a provision where the erring husband's passport could be cancelled.

The report was based on inputs from the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Ministry of Ex! ternal Affairs, National Commission for Woman, NGOs and aggrieved women.

On the other hand, international NGOs like Rakshak and 498a.org have spoken up for the hapless NRI groom ditched by greedy Indian brides. Rakshak is an international organisation dedicated to elder abuse and is working in close conjunction with 498a.org, an international forum engaged in researching the impact of misuse of gender biased laws such as Section 498 A of the IPC.

'The phenomenon of abandoned brides is one that has received huge media attention, but a new trend of "vanishing brides and abandoned grooms" has somehow escaped attention, Dr Anupama Singh of 'Rakshak' was quoted as having said recently.

At a teleconferencing session in New Delhi last week, several NRI men recounted ! stories of having been dumped by unscrupulous wives — who take advantage of gender-biased laws by filing false cases of domestic violence and dowry abuse to harass and extort money.

Dr Singh says the statistics speak for themselves: Against the number of 152 cases registered of "abandoned wives", the number of cases of "abandoned grooms" is around 700. Also, the courts have declared 80 per cent men charged under Section 498-A were innocent, she pointed out. Section 498-A of the IPC is a criminal law in which the wife and her family can charge any or all of the husband's family for physical and mental cruelty.

The organisations have cited scores of cases in which, they claimed, NRI grooms were used to acquire a visa of a foreign country and then abandoned by their wives. There are also cases where women suffering from mental illness were married off to N! RI men by with-holding information and later 'false' dowry cases were filed by the bride's families to extort money, the organisations claimed. Rakshak has made representations to top Indian authorities including the President of India, judges and ministers, including the Minister of Overseas Indians Affairs. They allege that the officials were "persistently refusing to consider the issue". They accused the ministry of "acting under undue pressure and influence" from the National Commission for Women and the women and child development ministry.

Instead of plugging the loopholes in IPC section 498-A and checking its misuse, the NGO activists claim, the Government of India has "caved in to the pressure from radical feminist organisations and promulgated another law, by the name of the Domestic Violence (DV) Act in October, 2006." T! he DV Act assumes that violence is only committed by men against women. In addition, this law provides unlimited scope for a woman to make false claims, entangle a husband and his family in legal battles. Well, if men are from Mars and women from Venus, how the hell do you sort them out on Earth? More so, if their differences extend across borders.

============ end of news item ================

 

regards, vinayak

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உங்கள் தளம் .. http://www.creditcardwatch.org/?parass=page/attracity

                                                                                                                ஆகஸ்டு 27, '07
        பெருநர் : மேலாளர்
        சமூக, பொருளாதார நீதிக்கான மையம்,
        1-P, பாண்டு கிளிக்ஸ் பிளாஸா, (தரை கீழ்த்தளம்)
        330/168, தம்பு செட்டி தெரு, (உயர்நீதி மன்றம் எதிரில்)
        சென்னை - 600 001.

 
ஐயா

உண்களது வலைத்தளத்தை இன்று கண்டேன். மிக்க மகிழ்ச்சி. சமூக, மற்றும் பொருளாதார அநீதிகளை எதிர்த்து, உங்கள் குழு போராடுவது கண்டு மகிழ்ச்சி.

ஒரு இடத்தில் மிக அழகாக "...நீங்கள் கொலை, கொள்ளை, திருட்டு, வழிப்பறி போன்ற குற்றங்களில் ஈடுபட்டால் மட்டுமே நீதிமன்ற உத்தரவு இல்லாமல் உங்களை கைது செய்ய முடியும். கட்டத்தவறிய கடனுக்காக எந்த விதமான நீதிமன்ற விசாரணையும் இல்லாமல் உங்களை யாரும் கைது செய்ய முடியாது...என்று சொல்லி இருந்தது கண்டு மகிழ்ச்சி

இதில் விந்த என்னவென்றால், ஒரு இளம் பெண் பொய் புகார் கொடுத்தாலே, நீதி விசாரணை இன்றி, without the due process of law, ஆண்களையும் அவர்களது குடும்பத்தாரையும் பட்டப் பகலில் போலீஸால் கைது செய்ய முடிகிறது.

முன்னோர் காலத்தில் வீட்டுக்குள் இருந்த பெண்ணுக்காக, அவளது பாதுகாப்புக்காக  வகுக்கப்பட்ட சட்டத்தை, இன்று சரிநிகர் சமமாய் நிற்க்கும் சில பெண்கள் துஷ்பிரயோகம் செய்கிறார்கள்.

குண்டர்களை வைத்து மிறட்டுவது போன்றே, வன்கொடுமை சட்டத்தையும், டவுரி சட்டத்தையும் வைத்து பல ஆண்களும் அவர்களது பெற்றோரும் மிரட்டப்படுகிறார்கள் .

பட்டப்பகலில் போலி டவுரி வழக்குகள் தொடரப்பட்டு பணம் பரிக்கப்படுகிறது. 

http://498a.blogspot.com/
http://498a.wordpress.com/
ஆகிய வலைத்தளங்களில் பார்த்தால் இந்த துஷ்பிரயோகத்தின் ஆழம் புரியும்.

வெட்ட வெட்ட கிளம்பும் இரக்த் பீஜமாய், இந்தியா முழுவதும் இந்த மோசடி பல்கி .... பெருகி வருகிறது .

பல குடும்பங்கள் சீரழிந்து பணமிழந்து திண்டாடுகின்றனர்.

ஒரு இளம் பெண்ணின் கோவத்தாலும், பொய் வாக்குமூலத்தாலும், அன்னை, அக்கா, தமக்கை, அண்ணன் மனைவி ஆகிய பல பெண்டிர் பாதிக்கப்படுகின்றனர்.

வரும் காலங்களில், இத்தகைய பொய் டவுரி வழக்குகளையும் எதிர்த்து நீங்கள் போராடுவீர்கள் என்று நம்புகிறேன்.

உங்களது மேலான பதிலை எதிர்நோக்குகிறேன்.

இப்படிக்கு

விநாயக்

 

regards, vinayak

My post above is Subject to

1. My idea of *self help* which is very essential : http://tinyurl.com/pxcfz
2. Standard disclaimers as in http://tinyurl.com/947u9

Blogs :

http://divorceindia.blogspot.com/
http://tinyurl.com/2tb3s7
http://tinyurl.com/2dkub4
http://tinyurl.com/23xppp

http://vinayak.jconserv.net/viewforum.php?f=4 

http://bareact.blogspot.com/
http://my2cw.blogspot.com/
http://o3.indiatimes.com/mera/
http://www.blurty.com/users/vinayak/

Seek advise : All India contact Nos : http://tinyurl.com/vntjz

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Is It Unwise for a Man to Marry in Today's Climate of Misandry?

Ray Blumhorst

Is It Unwise for a Man to Marry in Today's Climate of Misandry?

August 11, 2007 at 3:06 pm · Filed under Vox Populi

http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/08/11/is-it-unwise-for-a-man-to-marry-in-todays-climate-of-misandry/

What makes Delhi the divorce capital?

What makes Delhi the divorce capital?

Aug 2007, 0000 hrs IST,PALLAVI PASRICHA ,TNN

Delhi has emerged as the divorce capital of India with about 9000 cases of separation filed every year on an average. DT explores the reasons for this.

They say marriages are made in heaven. But if they have been solemnised in Delhi, we may have a problem. The city has emerged as the de facto divorce capital of the country with about 8,000-9,000 cases filed here every year. The number is almost the double of what was seen four years ago, and what's more, it is the upwardly mobile 20 and 30-somethings who are finding their way to court rooms. Also, the number of women filing for divorce has seen a steep increase.

And for all those who thought that Delhi was more steeped in tradition than glittering Mumbai, here's news. Mumbai sees less than 5,000 divorce cases in one year, and the same holds true for Bangalore.

Can't fit in, walk out

Lawyers, sociologists and marriage counsellors cite one common reason for the higher divorce rate in Delhi – the rising expectations from marriage.

Divorce lawyer Anita Sheney says, "A lot of women are filing cases for divorce, which was not the trend earlier. If things are not working in a marriage, rather than working on it, couples decide to go their separate ways."

Accepts marriage counsellor Chandan Gupta, "Marriages are breaking up today because couples can't see each other's viewpoint. Couples in their mid-20s and early-30s bring a fixed mindset to marriage and refuse to change it. They feel that marriage is like a jigsaw puzzle where all the pieces will just fit in but this obviously does not happen." He goes on to say that as both partners are working these days, they are left with no time and energy to work on the relationship. "The hectic and demanding schedule of a normal working day leaves couples with no time to understand each other," he adds. 

Delhi's dubious status

And why is Delhi seeing such a spurt in divorce cases? Experts feel that is because Delhi is a city of immigrants with no specific beliefs and is far more materialistic than other places. Divorce is no longer considered a social stigma in Delhi, and so if there is discord in a marital relationship, couples would rather break it up than somehow drag the relationship on. Comparatively, people in cities like Chennai and Bangalore have more traditional mindsets.

Lawyer Geeta Luthra who deals in divorce cases explains, "Many couples who apply for a divorce are in their twenties and thirties. It's easier for people to end a marriage if they don't have children, otherwise they wait till kids grow up. The main reasons for divorces are adultery and mental incompatibility these days."
 
Social mores are a-changing

As society accepts divorce, the reasons given for separation are also changing.

Says psychologist and marriage counsellor, Madhumati Singh, "Couples are very impatient these days. Earlier marriage was about adjustment and compatibility but now it's more like a power game where both the husband and wife strive for an equal status. Women are financially independent these days and they don't want to change that after marriage. Money matters come into play and when things don't work out, couples file for divorce."

As 28-year-old Seema Singh (name changed), who recently got divorced, says, "Things were just not working out. It was not as if we didn't try. The decision to part ways was also tough but we knew that we would be happier without each other. It was an end to all the bitter fights we used to have and today we are good friends."

Adds Madhumati, "These problems also existed earlier but nowadays youngsters have a casual approach. If a woman thinks of getting a divorce, her parents will encourage her saying that she can have a better life without her husband."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Delhi_Times/Whatmakes_Delhi_the_divorce_capital/articleshow/2253106.cms

IT boom leads to spurt in divorces? Chennai, recorded a rise by about 200 per cent.

IT boom leads to spurt in divorces?
Arup Chanda
Tribune News Service

Chennai, August 12

Along with the boom in the IT, BPO and ITES sectors in the South, there is also a sudden rise in divorce in these industries.

Chennai, which is the latest on the list of "cyber boom" cities in India, has recorded a rise in the cases of split marriage by about 200 per cent.

A recent study, which compiled data from various family courts and crime records bureau, indicates that more young couples are opting for divorce and at least 40 per cent of them in the city are professionals working in the IT, BPO and ITES sectors.

According to lawyer at the Madras High Court R.Saravakumar, "The number of divorce cases by the professionals in three family courts is increasing. The number of divorce cases in the courts was more than 3,000.

"Over the past few years, the trend has been on the rise and this year, within the first half, it has crossed the 3000-mark," he said.

Compared to Chennai, Bangalore has also witnessed a rise of more than 100 per cent in these cases over the past decade with Kerala outshining all with a record of a 350 per cent rise during the past 10 years.

Saravanakumar said," A majority of the professionals are in their mid-20s who are usually from other parts of the country. They come to work in the South with good salaries but with a hectic daily schedule, they have no personal lives. Office love blooms leading to short-term relationships and just to get out of sheer loneliness, they tie the knot only to realise soon that their priorities are different."

"Many get married, which are inter-community and inter-caste even without informing their parents. Within six months, they find that the marriage is not compatible and file for mutual separation", he said.

"In a majority of these cases, both husband and wife are IT or BPO employees with long working hours and have no idea of how a marriage works with compromises. They have no intention of rearing a family and prefer only live-in relationships. When things do not work out, they prefer a quick divorce, he added." A majority of these cases are where the couple just need to fulfil their physical needs and do not have emotional involvements.

Psychiatrists say, "It is a fast-growing culture. The lifestyle is work hard for five days and they party hard during the weekends to take out their stress. Most of them are youngsters who start their careers with fat salaries.

They splash around a lot of money and a majority of them imbibe alcohol and some take drugs. They think in short term and want to get the best out of life. Most of our patients suffer from chronic depression."

"When there is a marital problem, they should seek counselling and practise meditation or yoga. They should spend more time with each other in their homes instead of partying with friends. But they are busy in the rat race of making more money", he said.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070813/main9.htm

........women no longer give a second thought when it comes to seeking divorce. ....

Bitter halves are better off on their own

11 Aug 2007, 0000 hrs IST,AKASH WADHWA ,TNN

Well, at least that's what a recent survey held in the country suggests

Gone are the days when women used to be submissive and lived with their men under any circumstance and when divorce used to be a stigma. Well, at least that's what a recent survey held in the country suggests.

According to the survey, divorce rates are soaring among India's newly affluent middle class, as working women with independent incomes refuse to submit to the traditional ideal of marriage. The scenario seems to have completely changed and the women no longer give a second thought when it comes to seeking divorce.

Shweta Arora is a perfect example of such a modern-day woman. Though she had a love-cum-arranged marriage, she filed for a divorce even before her first marriage anniversary. And being economically independent she also didn't ask for any alimony, as getting a divorce was her primary concern.

Shweta shares: Soon after my marriage I came to know that my husband was a drug addict and had no intentions of quitting it. I tried my level best to convince him to join a rehab centre but failed. Once I realised the futility of it, I didn't waste a second and filed for a divorce and soon I got divorced. Now I am a free bird.

To Shalini Mathur, secretary of an NGO for women, the survey appears to be genuine as she feels that women no more think of divorce as a social stigma. Earlier also middle class women wanted to take divorce but couldn't because of the social pressures and also because they were dependent on their husbands for each and every thing.

Although the social stigma is still there, the scene has completely changed over the years, as these women don't give a damn. They are self-dependent and can now afford to live on their own terms. Besides, men have refused to change and are still the same narrow minded, opines Shalini.

But on the flip side Khursheed Kanga, a trans-personal psychotherapist, feels that being self-dependent is not the only reason for middle class women going in for divorce. I feel that women today are more ambitious and give more importance to their career.

The prime example of this change is that no woman likes to get married without completing her studies. For them studies come first and everything later. One can call it the outcome of the western influence but there has been a continuous change in the Indian value system.

Lawyer Shishir Bhatnagar says that nowadays it is mostly the women who approach lawyers for separation. Women today give due importance to their security, both social as well as financial, and also they are in no mood to handle any kind of pressures from their in-laws or husband.

Most of them are independent and like to live a peaceful life and because of this if anything goes wrong in their married life they don't give a second thought and file for a divorce, avers Bhatnagar.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Lucknow_Times/Bitter_halves_are_better_off_on_their_own/articleshow/2272195.cms

NRI men victims of false dowry cases

NRI men victims of false dowry cases

Vineeta Pandey

Friday, August 10, 2007  09:47 IST

NEW DELHI: When Jaspreet from New York got married to a doctor from India, he thought his world will be as beautiful as shown in the Hindi films.

But little did he know that his world would collapse soon and he will be branded a criminal with Interpol's red corner notices against him.

Jaspreet's marriage lasted less than six month after his doctor wife confessed that she had married him to acquire a US visa and was interested in someone else living in New York.

He managed a divorce in US on charges of fraudulent marriage but in India his wife's family filed a case under IPC 498A (cruelty on women for dowry). Jaspreet's parents were put behind bars and their passports confisticated. His wife sought Rs1 crore to drop charges.

It's been eight years now, Jaspreet's ex-wife has remarried, has two children and is settled well as a practising doctor in New York, while Jaspreet is still facing the criminal cases in Indian courts.

For hundreds of NRI grooms like this who had quit India of their volition, the return home is increasingly becoming a forced one.

A large number of NRI grooms are complaining of harassment by the hands of law and their estranged brides who falsely implicate them under the false dowry charges following a bad marriage.

According to a study by NRI group Rakshak, close to 80 per cent women who have field complains were either doctors, engineers, post graduates and about 10 per cent were post graduates. And the victims are also highly qualified.

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1114695

NRIs raise voice against anti-dowry law misuse

NRIs raise voice against anti-dowry law misuse

Rajeev Ranjan Roy | New Delhi

The growing 'abuse' of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code seems to have raised alarm bells among abandoned non-resident Indian husbands and their relatives. They have demanded that the Centre adopt a judicious approach to check the abuse of law and expose the organised scandal.

Section 498A of the IPC which entails punishment of upto three years, aims at protecting women against harassment or cruelty at the hands of spouses or their relatives.

"The law is being blatantly abused by unscrupulous elements. The non-resident Indian (NRI) husbands are being duped, cheated, humiliated, harassed and ruthlessly exploited for immigration purposes by the so-called vanishing wives. In many cases, the husbands are blackmailed, subjected to financial extortion and are even put behind bars on false charges," Anupama Singh of Rakshak Foundation said on Thursday during a media interaction.

Rakshak is currently looking into the complaints of around 700 abandoned NRI husbands and there are another 3,000 cases involving resident Indians. The Foundation on Thursday also organised a tele-conference with family members of abandoned husbands from the US, the UK, Switzerland and United Arab Emirates. They narrated harrowing tales of torture and torment heaped on them.

The family members of abandoned husbands alleged that instead of looking into the veracity of the allegations of harassment, the Centre was considering further gender biased legislation based on faulty assumptions and unsubstantiated statistics. "The Centre claims that there are 30,000 abandoned brides, but the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has only 150 complaints," the sister of an abandoned husband said.

An alumnus of the Capital's Maulana Azad Medical College where she currently teaches as assistant lecturer in the Department of Medicine, Singh said her colleagues at Rakshak Foundation and 498a.org, another organisation, would intensify their concerted efforts to expose the racket behind the vanishing NRI brides.

"Many of abandoned husbands end up losing their jobs, social status, visas and in some cases even their lives, apart from the trauma that their families suffer. There is hardly any attempt on the part of the Centre to look into the different aspects of charges of harassment by women against husbands," she said.

The participants felt that the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, expected to act as a liaison between NRIs and the motherland, is steadfastly pursuing an anti-NRI agenda by acting under undue pressure and influence from different quarters.

"The Ministry's persistent refusal to even consider the issue of abandoned and cheated NRI husbands comes as a shock and surprise to the NRIs. The Government must respond to the situation judiciously. The law is being abused like anything," Satya, an abandoned husband said from California.

Rakshak is now contemplating a series of meeting and representations to the different authorities in Government. Simultaneously, she and her colleagues wish to create awareness about the situation by bringing abandoned husbands and their families together.

"The Centre does not listen to the voice of the harried husbands' conscience, but prefers going by baseless and false allegations. Let's not alienate the NRIs from the nation," she said.

"Things are assuming a critical proportion. It has become a scam in which these NRI women first marry the rich and later abandon them by taking recourse to anti-dowry and other gender biased laws. We urge the Government to adopt a holistic approach to the problem. The vanishing NRI wives are an industry in which the men are the losers. The Government must wake up before it is too late," Singh warned.


http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=front%5Fpage&file_name=story3%2Etxt&counter_img=3

Harassment laws used by wives to turn tables on NRIs

Harassment laws used by wives to turn tables on NRIs

10 Aug 2007, 0338 hrs IST,Ashish Sinha,TNN

NEW DELHI: If NRI marriages are a rage, here's a rider. We've heard about men inflicting excesses on their brides in foreign lands but the reverse may also be true with wives doing the vanishing act and making their men suffer under stringent Indian laws against torturing women, especially section 498-A of IPC.

Dozens of such men, some even from IITs, publicly poured out their blues at a teleconference on Thursday, prompted by a voluntary organisation that works to highlight male plight at the hands of their wives. The marriage of Naveen, an engineer in Florida, hit rock bottom in mere five months. "I just asked her why she was in touch with her boyfriend. She tried to harm herself with a knife. We returned to India and I suggested she stay with her parents for some time. As soon as I was back in the US, she filed a 498-A case against my family and me. My parents were jailed for three days," said Naveen, a case against whom is on in India and an Interpol Red Corner Notice pending abroad. Anupama Singh, the secretary of Rakshak that has raked up such cases, said the voluntary organisation has received over 700 such complaints, half of them from the US alone.

"We don't say all these are genuine cases, but many are. The government is not really concerned. It's futile to talk about the plight of men and their families by the women they marry. "In contrast, the cases of women being tortured by their husbands abroad have been overplayed with the government claiming that 30,000 brides — 15,000 from Punjab's Doab region alone — had been abandoned abroad," she said.

But in 2005, the government said in Parliament that only 100 such complaints had been received. The ministry of overseas Indian affairs (MOIA) recently revised the figure to 152. The trend, therefore, is more of vanishing brides and abandoned grooms abroad, Singh added.

On July 25, the ministry was told about the new concern at a presentation and MOIA secretary Nirmal Singh formed a committee to examine the issue. Rakshak members also met India's ambassador to US Ronen Sen and minister for overseas Indian affairs Vayalar Ravi, awaiting action from their side. Raj K, an IIT-Chennai alumni working as an investment banker in New York, married a British citizen of Indian origin and said his wife was abusive from beginning. "We separated one year later due to problems. Now she is demanding a huge sum as divorce settlement and her father has threatened to lodge a 498-A case against my parents and me," he said. Satya said strict penalties should be imposed for lodging false cases and affidavits against possible perjury must be taken from both sides in India.

ashish.sinha@timesgroup.com

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Harassment_laws_used_by_wives_to_turn_tables_on_NRI_men/articleshow/2269764.cms

Now, harassed NRI grooms

Now, harassed NRI grooms

Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI: While the country struggles to deal with the issue of brides abandoned by the Non-Resident Indians (NRI), not much attention seems to be given to the NRI grooms who allege "duping, cheating, humiliation and harassment" by the brides.

Raising the issue here at a press conference, a number of harassed grooms spoke about the exploitation by Indian brides for immigration, visa or a permanent residency of a foreign land. They alleged they were "blackmailed," their family members put behind bars and many of them even lost their jobs following false complaints under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code. Organised by "498a" (an Internet forum for harassed NRIs) and Rakshak, a non-governmental organisation, the victims spoke about their harassment through video-conferencing. They said that efforts by them to raise the issue with the Indian Government had met with resentment and hostility.

The Government apathy to the plight of these innocent men is best exemplified by the Ministry specially created for NRI affairs — the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. It was expected to liaise between the NRIs and people in India, but was steadfastly pursuing an "anti-NRI agenda" by acting under undue pressure and influence from the National Commission for Women and the Ministry of Women Child Development, said Anupama Singh, convener of Rakshak.

"The Government is considering further gender-biased legislation against the NRIs, which are based on faulty assumptions and unsubstantiated statistics. While one may have heard about the 30,000 NRI abandoned brides, one may not know that these numbers are largely unconfirmed."


URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/11/stories/2007081156641600.htm

Kids accused of aiding dowry torture, result of a FALSE DOWRY CASE

Kids accused of aiding dowry torture

19 Jul 2007, 0206 hrs IST,Akhilesh Kumar Singh,TNN

KANPUR: While most children their age are busy with school activities, two siblings - eight-year-old Ajay and four-year-old Vishal - are evading arrest, and are in hiding since June 29.

The two have been implicated under several sections of the IPC on charges of dowry harassment and cruelty against their sister-in-law and have been issued non-bailable warrants by the district court.

Under Section 156 (3) of the CrPC, the district court had asked the police to register a case and arrest Ramesh Kuriel, a resident of Darshadev village in Kanpur dehat district, his wife Shanti and their sons, Abhinay (24), Ajay (8) and Vishal (4).

The court issued the directive on a complaint filed by Abhinay's wife Deepa, who had alleged that her in-laws, husband and the two minor brothers-in-law tried to set her ablaze on December 2, 2006, because her family refused to pay a dowry of Rs 50,000 besides a bike.

The children have been accused of helping the family in pouring kerosene on Deepa. While police cite compliance of court order and continue raiding possible hideouts in search of the children, Deepa's advocate Arun Srivastava argued that she had not disclosed the age of the accused, hence the gaffe.

"We are trying to correct the lapse," he added. Although Ramesh and his wife were granted bail on Tuesday, their sons are yet to seek bail. "Deepa has implicated my entire family after my son Abhinay refused to leave us and stay separately," Ramesh said.

The case, however, has added to the swelling number of frivolous anti-dowry litigation in which the criminal justice system is used as a tool to settle personal scores. This is happening despite several high court orders in the past asking lower courts to avoid entertaining flimsy use of the anti-dowry law. The latest such direction had come from the Delhi High Court on March 13.

"The trial court must take into account the entirety of the case. It must peruse all documents brought to it and then decide whether there was a genuine case or not," Justice S N Dhingra had observed in his order. The court gave the opinion after hearing a plea by Sangeeta Kalra to quash a criminal complaint filed by her father in June 1999, accusing her husband and in-laws of harassing her for dowry.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Kids_accused_of_aiding_dowry_torture/articleshow/2215850.cms
or alternate URL http://tinyurl.com/2s273s

The Times of Hypocrisy : Lucio Mascarenhas

Evidently, canonizing Pooja Chauhan and her pornography is not enough; the Times of India cannot have enough of hypocrisy. 

 

Today's Times of India, Bombay, carries an article titled "Calcutta Mum, Hyderabad Dad Kill Girls", then goes on to breathlessly declaim "Little girls are having it really bad in the country."  But reading the article itself, the two incidents are very apparently not of deliberate targetting of girl children.  

 

In the Hyderabad case, a man in a tiny slum with a daughter incapitated by polio snapped and murdered her when she asked him to take her to the toilet late at night.    Bad enough as it is, there is no apparent reason to imply that she was murdered because she was a girl, but every reason to show that she was murdered because she was a burden on a man already under deep stress. 

 

All over the world, there have been many instances of both men and women, and indeed, more women than men, suddenly breaking under stress and committing violence against their children. 

 

As for the second case, a woman allegedly suffering from some psychiatic ailment was walking back to her husband's home from her parent's home, with her son, daughter and younger son, when she suddenly picked up and threw her daughter into the river Hooghly, and then attempted to throw the younger son too, but was restrained by pedestrians, who took her to the police. 

 

It is evident that this too was not targeted solely at a girl child. 

 

Yet, despite the facts being so, the Times of India has once again hypocritically given a Feminist slant to these two incidents. 

 

Here is the newsreport: 

 

Times of India, Bombay edition, Thursday, August 2, 2007, page 13

 

Kolkata Mum, Hyd Dad Kill Girls

 

Times News Network, Hyderabad/Kolkata:  Little girls are having it really bad in the country.  As if the spate of female foeticide was not enough, five year old Khurana and four year old Visakha fell victim to moments of madness that seized their parents over Tuesday and Wednesday. 

 

In Hyderabad, Mohammed Irfan Khan was taken into custody on Wednesday for strangling polio-stricken Khurana to death the night before.  Left to fend for himself by his own family and in-laws after he embraced Islam to marry his sweetheart, the 32-year old father of four claims penury made "it too difficult to take care of her".  "There is no one else to help us.  Unless he brings us food, we will starve," Khan's wife Zahira said. 

 

A few hours later, 35 year old Anita Singh, while walking down Kolkata's landmark Howrah's Bridge with her three children, suddenly picked up Visakha and hurled her into the rain-fed Hooghly below.  Her body has not yet been found. 

 

Anita was about to throw the toddler she was carrying in her arms too, but pedestrians stopped her and took her to the police.  She has been arrested and charged with murder. 

 

When police contacted Anita's in-laws in Howrah, they were told that she was a psychiatric patient and was still undergoing treatment. 

 

Confessing to his crime, Ahmed said he strangled Khurana at 11.30 pm on Tuesday when she asked him to take her to the bathroom in her one-room house in Banjara Hills.  "I don't know what came over me, but I couldn't bear it any longer and choked her.  She was a burden, couldn't even eat or go to the toilet by herself.  My eldest daughter and I took turns caring for her," Ahmed said. 

 

Anita was walking with six-year old Chandrashekhar and Visakha back to her in-laws' place at 4 p.m. after staying six days with her parents when she suddenly turned on her daughter.  Her elder son was spared but the other one in her arms almost met his sister's fate.  END.

 

I could not find a url for the story on the Times of India's website; however, I did find a url for a separate report on the Calcutta murder:  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Mother_throws_four-year-old_daughter_from_Howrah_Bridge/articleshow/2249715.cms

 

Sometimes the Times of India posts its articles late on the net.  It may do so with the above article.  However, I suspect that they will not have the courage to do so. 

 

Kind regards, 

 

 

Lucio Mascarenhas

Weekly meetings for counseling discussion/guidance-Mumbai

	Weekly meetings for counseling discussion/guidance-Mumbai
	Saturday August 4, 2007
	5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
	"Rain Bow" Cyber cafe, Adjoining 'Quick Chef' Restaurant/near Mulund Metro Magistrate court, S.N Road, Mulund(west) & 970, 1st floor, New link road, Adarsh Nagar, Andheri(w).
	Gokul: 9821414336, Guptaji: 9869323538,Mumbai Helpline: 9224335577.
	This regular-weekly meeting is conducted all Saturdays, 5 to 8PM at Protect Indian Family's office in Mulund(near mulund train station, "Rain Bow" Cyber cafe, Adjoining 'Quick Chef' Restaurant/near Mulund Metro Magistrate court, S.N Road, Mulund(west). The Andheri meeting venue is near Lotus Petrol Pump(next in the same side of the road). 970, 1st floor, New link road, Adarsh Nagar, Andheri(w). Look for the big board of "English Speaking" classes which is right beside the Lotus shaped petrol pump(the meeting is held at the same place). For any directions call Mr.Shukla- 9819218414, or the numbers given above. The meetings in Andheri will be held Every Saturday between 5pm to 8pm.