1 Married Man Ends Life Every 9 Minutes in India i.e 58400 every year!

New Delhi: Every nine minutes a married man commits suicide in India due to alleged misuse of section 498a of IPC against them, taking the toll to around a whopping 64,000 every year, says a report.

"National Crime Records Bureau statistics reveal more incidences of suicide by married men than by married women. In 2012, approximately 64,000 married men committed suicide vis-a-vis 32,000 married women," says D S Rao, president of Hridaya-Nest of Family Harmony, an NGO, quoting a survey by it.

As per Section 498a the husband of a woman or his relative who subjects her to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term of up to to three years and shall also be liable to fine.

Rao said the misuse of 498a also leads to suffering of old parents as well as the family members and relatives of the men against whom the complaints have been lodged.

"The law is not serving its purpose and is instead being used by a section of the people to vent their anger and extort married men and their families," claimed Amit Gupta, an official of the NGO.

In West Bengal the number of cases under the section has grown exponentially at the rate of 11 percent in the last two years but the conviction rate has dropped to just 4.4 per cent from 6.3 percent earlier, as per the survey.

West Bengal accounts for 1.06 lakh case, which is more than 20 percent of the total cases filed under the section and 80,000 people were arrested for such cases against him last year, Indranil Gupta, an official of the NGO said.

The NGO works for upholding the rights of married men and providing them mental support when falsely implicated under the section. The police say it is 'really hard' to prove the cases as false.

"Till now we have not been able to prove that these cases are false because they are cases of mental torture. How would you prove that mental torture has not taken place?" Joint CP (Crime) Pallab Kanti Ghosh said.

Criminal lawyer Kaushik Chanda agrees that Sec 498a is "misused" but said whether the suicide of married males is linked to it should be looked into.

"The reason for suicide by married males should be looked into because in most cases they get bail (after being charged under the section 498a)," he says.

The NGO findings is rubbished by West Bengal Women's Commission chairperson and leading women activist Sunanda Mukherjee, who feels there is still a huge section of women in the country who need to be sensitized about their rights.

"This (the findings of the NGO) is nothing but a product of male chauvinism. There is still a huge section of women who need to be sensitized about their rights and who are regularly tortured," she says.

Hridaya-Nest of Family Harmony has started helplines and is providing free counseling to the callers and victims of harassment who have been falsely implicated. Besides, it also provides knowledge sharing and legal aid.

"There are many people who come to us for help. Some of them are so mentally devastated that they are on the verge of committing suicide," says Gupta.

"We have bank of court orders and experienced members to guide the victims to fight the false cases against them under section 498a," he said.

RTI and public interest litigation are tools to fight for the rights of such men, he adds.

Has the remedy become worse than the ailment?

Bride burning is a heinous crime and those perpetrating it should be severely punished, with life imprisonment or even death sentence. However, 498A, this single IPC is creating more deaths that bride burning.

In one year now we are have more men committing suicide than number of brides being burnt in 6 years.

The NCRB statistics show that 91,202 dowry deaths were reported in the country from January 1, 2001 to December 31 2012. Out of that 84,013 were charged and sent for trial and the rest were either withdrawn by the government during the course of investigation or not investigated. Of this, 5,081 cases were reported to be false after investigations.

In 2010, 8391 dowry death cases were reported across India, meaning a bride was burned every 90 minutes, according to statistics recently released by the National Crime Records Bureau.

Compare that with the figure for men, one in 9 minutes, i.e 10 times more men are committing suicides than brides being burnt.

I personally know two person who committed suicide because of harassment by their wives. One hanged himself and the other jumped off a running train. I also know another two persons who had to give hefty sums to their wives to get divorce because of false cases lodged by their wives.