The other side of dowry disputes
Fifty-three-year-old
Damyanti Sharma still shudders at the thought of the night she had to
spend at a police station last year. A former school teacher, she never
imagined that realizing her long-cherished dream of seeing her only son
married would one day turn into her family's worst nightmare. "We
treated our daughter-in-law like a daughter. The first two years were
smooth. However, soon the fights started and she eventually walked out
in 2011. Even though we never abused her or even took dowry, we were
implicated in a false dowry harassment case. Since then, our life has
only been about legal hassles and visiting courts," Damyanti claimed.
Every Sunday, a group of women
in situations similar to Damyanti's gather at Borivli and Mulund to
discuss the atrocities committed on them under women-centric laws such
as the Dowry Act (498-A) and the Domestic Violence Act. These women are
not "victims" under the law but like Damyanti are those who face
prosecution, after their daughters-in-law and sisters-in-law file
complaints against them. This situation has led to the birth of a group
called Mothers and Sisters of Husband Against Abuse of Law (MASHAAL), a
part of a nationwide forum called the Indian Family Foundation (IFF).
The forum is fighting against what it calls "criminalization of marital
disputes". The forum alleges that of late, it has become a fashion for a
wife's family to threaten the husband's family with false dowry and
maintenance cases if their demands are not met.
"The
disambiguation lies in the word 'women' in such laws, which actually
implies just wife. The laws seem to be immune to mothers and sisters of
the husband. Their problems in such situations also need amplification,"
says Jinesh Zaveri, an activist and a co-founder of MASHAAL.
For a 61-year-old Dahisar-based architect, the act of helping such
distressed families has helped him and his 31-year-old son deal with
their own legal battle. "While helping these people, I never ever
thought that we would end up in such a situation," he says. His son, who
was a computer engineer in the Middle
East, lost his job as a consequence of the false complaint filed by his
daughter-in-law's family, he alleged. "Her family was against the idea
of her marrying outside the community and hence they took her back and
filed the complaint to harass us and extort money," he says.
Both father and son were granted bail soon after being detained.
A reason for the misuse of such laws, say legal experts, is the manner
in which such laws are framed and the state machinery involved in
executing them.
"Though women-centric laws are welcome and the
need of the hour, one must bear in mind that they cannot be framed under
pressure and in the absence of a rationale. The laws must be such that
while women can get the maximum benefit, there is very little room for
ambiguity and misuse," a lawyer said.
He adds that the police
also needs to be sensitized on how to handle such cases and that these
cases must be registered and arrests made only after conducting
investigations.
