‘Spare a thought for men’

CHENNAI: This is a stag party with a difference. Men, who accuse their girl friends, wives and fiancees of duping them or foisting cases against them, have come together in Tamil Nadu to put up a collective fight.

According to the general secretary of Association for Protection of Men, Madhu Sudhanan, more than 1000 members are aged below 25 years and 4000 members are below 40.

At a meeting on Sunday, attended by over 50 men, there was a talk about rights and laws favouring women. But the association is not to protect men from the the misuse of the Domestic Violence Act and Dowry Harassment Act alone but also youngsters falsely accused of eve teasing.

As one man said: “I was dragged by the police and beaten up in the station. If a girl has a personal enmity, she takes it out by falsely accusing men of eve-teasing. And there is no verification done by the police when it comes to women, they just accept what she says as the sacred truth.” Another member of the association said that he was right now on the streets after he registered his family property in the name of his lover, who conveniently duped him after that.

Madhu Sudanan said that many young men were being cheated by girl friends - they emotionally ditch the man, by marrying men of their parents’ choice. But such cheating was never taken as a crime, he said. Most of the association members had been harassed by women - wives, girlfriends, fiancées - or duped.

But the system is biased towards women, Madhu Sudanan said, and added there are 84 laws for the protection of women’s rights, but none for men.

“Gone are the days when women were exploited. Now, many women misuse the laws meant for their protection. Many young men have been trapped by the laws.

Many youth ditched by girl friends are unnecessarily harassed by police following false complaints, another association member in his mid-30s, said.