All about eve, but at Adam’s cost?

Read this article in TOI yesterday. In times of all those feminist moment, it does make some sense. A nice read. Taken verbatim from the e-NewsPaper of TOI.

All about eve, but at Adam’s cost?
Suneet Johar | TNN

Women have suffered shocking inequalities for centuries and continue to be discriminated against. I am all for ensuring equality of opportunity for women. The problem arises when in the garb of compensating for past injustices; new laws are formulated to discriminate against men.
Dowry is a shocking insult to womanhood. But there have been cases where wives have framed husbands and in-laws just to avenge a failing marriage. A wife’s mere complaint is sufficient to put the in-laws behind bars.

It is also common in failing marriages for women to demand large settlements by threatening to file dowry cases. In many cases, the hapless husband helplessly complies.

Recently, courts have postulated that no Indian woman can ever lie about being raped and even in the absence of medical evidence, a woman’s word is sufficient to secure conviction. Recently, newspapers exposed a case in which police had framed a businessman for rape. The complainant, it was found, had consensual sex with another man of the same blood type to frame the businessman.
In middle-class colonies of Delhi, there are instances, however rare, of maidservants extorting money from male employers by screaming rape. In one such case, a 65-year-old man was set free only because he was impotent. Courts must consider the probability of either a man or a woman lying. An accused must be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 allows a wife a share of the marital home (in case of divorce) even if it is owned by her parents-in-law and not her husband. Why doesn’t the husband get similar rights to the wife’s parental property? The net outcome will be to discourage married sons from staying with elderly parents.

This law makes it a crime to abuse a woman physically, mentally, verbally, emotionally and sexually. While I fully agree that women deserve this protection, do men not deserve similar protection?

Men have a tax exempt income of Rs 1.10 lakh while women get up to Rs 1.45 lakh. Why should a man earning an income of Rs 5 lakh pay more than a woman earning the same?

Similarly, adultery under IPC 497 is a criminal offense for men but not women. The Indian government sent this law for review to the National Council for Women and got back the response that even in cases of a woman committing adultery; she is the victim!

The new system for admission to Delhi nurseries gives 5 extra points to a girl child. Why should a male toddler be discriminated against even when he and the girl come from the same socio-economic background.

In Canada, so much attention was paid to female education and sports that today women significantly outnumber men in many fields of higher education. Sixty percent all new jobs go to women. There is a realisation that intense (and justified) focus on female education has led to boys falling behind and only now correctives are being installed.

Women are our loved mothers, sisters, daughters and wives. Don’t make them the enemy. Gender is an attribute of the body. The Atman is sexless. Have female equality by all means, but don’t start male inequity. Let not the sins of the father be visited upon the son.

PS: I have full approval of women in my household to write the article.