How are Laws Established in India?

Why are laws in India not gender-neutral?

• e.g. Domestic violence (DV act):only woman can be the victim and man can be the perpetrator Rape: only woman can be the victim and man can be the perpetrator. This law is being increasingly misused after the Delhi gang rape incident Adultery (497) : only woman can be the victim and man can be the perpetrator Age of consent: no age of consent for males. If 16yr boy and 16yr girl have consensual sex, the boy will be charged with rape! Bill for protection of women at workplace. Only women can be sexually harassed at workplace? 304B: If wife dies of unnatural causes within 7 years of marriage, husband is assumed to be murderer (without any evidence!) IPC 498a: woman can jail her male partner's entire family just by giving a statement in police station. Division of property in case of divorce: Only man's property is divided and given to the woman. Woman's property is not divided. some more: divorce law, alimony law, child custody laws Features: The most striking feature of some of these laws is that man is assumed guilty unless proven innocent i.e. the burden of proof is on the man ! I guess nowhere else in the world is this the case No special provisions to punish the misuse of law. This becomes a tool in the hands of unscrupulous women to settle scores. Even Supreme Court has termed 498a as legal terrorism Ministry of Women and Child Development: women and child are clubbed into one ministry here. The child equally belongs to the father as it does to the mother. No ministry for men's development ? Some unwritten laws: If a girl (e.g.Jiah Khan) in a relationship commits suicide, boy (e.g.Suraj Pancholi) is arrested for abetting. Reverse the genders, and the boy will be labeled as psychotic lover, and no arrests made. If a man accidentally touches woman in a crowded bus, and woman makes noise, man will get beaten up by the passengers If a man breaks his promise to marry, consensual sex gets automatically converted to rape and the man is jailed. If woman breaks her promise, it is considered women empowerment (e.g. 1) http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-22/pune/40133995_1_inamdar-47-year-old-man-kothrud; 2) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Magistrate-arrested-for-raping-female-sub-inspector/articleshow/20837816.cms ) Read these news articles to see how absurd is the reason behind arrest And no, these laws are not just on paper. Many men have committed suicides after being falsely harassed by the laws e.g. Syed Makhdoom case of Bangalore. In fact suicide rates are higher in married men than women. Even the courts acknowledge that most of the IPC498a cases are false and filed by unscrupulous women to settle scores with in-laws. Here are some links which show that laws are gender biased: http://hindu.com/2005/07/22/stories/2005072202631500.htm http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-12-03/india/30471373_1_adultery-law-consent-or-connivance-offence http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-02-18/delhi/37160070_1_special-marriage-act-muslim-girl-physical-relations Some must-read links from Quora itself Arguments like "rapes are mostly committed against women" are not valid because we are talking about law here, not some development policy. Law must cover 100% of the citizens (even 99.9 % is not enough) Again, arguments on the lines of "women are the victims of harassment by men" are not valid: If,  say, 75% of the men are anti-women, it doesn't give women the right to  harass the rest 25% who are 100% innocent. Epilogue: What could be reason for the gender biased laws? Is it because our country and society is backward, and a long way to go before we become developed? Or is it the "abala nari" (helpless woman) concept deeply entrenched in our society ? Or are Indian feminists funded by the Indian Mujahideen or SIMI to destroy the social fabric and peace of the country ? Or is it something else? Is it justified to give such enormous legal advantage to women? What can we do to eradicate this bane of our Indian society? When feminists demand equal pay, equal rights, equal this, equal that, why do they demand such unequal laws ?

• Answer:

  An excellent question that needs some serious attention!   First of all to understand the very need and the misuse of such laws, let’s focus on women in India. (Please go through my complete answer before jumping to weird conclusions) Since you have already mentioned the anomalies of these laws, I will focus on the origin and rectification of them. All the points of gender bias can only be rectified IF AND ONLY IF women in India speak up for themselves. But there is a serious issue with this case in particular. Yes, today; as an Indian, I am ashamed to live in a patriarchal society. The reason for the existence of such male chauvinist society in India and your question is deeply connected. Each and every point that you have mentioned in your question deals with the concern of protecting the female gender. This is where my issue lies. Agreed that 99.9999%sexual assaults are by men in India, agreed that almost in 80% of the cases women are bullied, but you hit the bulls eye by saying that rule should be unbiased. Now back to your question:”why did such laws originate?” Its because of the inferiority complex women developed in India. Every time such laws were made (in the 20th century) a woman felt protected. To answer your question in a single sentence ‘laws are gender biased because each time whenever a major incident (relating to gender bias) broke out Indian women DEMANDED equality.’ That was the major reason that such laws came into existence. I’m deeply hurt to say that, IN INDIA WOMEN TOO DON’T WANT TO BE EQUAL WITH MEN. ALL THAT THEY WANT IS TO BE PROTECTED. According to me, women must not demand equality, its their right (you don’t demand rights).  When all those gender biased laws came in, every woman just went ga-ga over it. So your answer in short, these laws were to make women protected (but not equal).Each and every man in India had no problem with it. It was like making a child feel special whenever it cried by buying it a candy. In-fact what they did not realize is that, with such laws only for women, the same patriarchal society made a strong point that ‘‘its you (women) who need protection. We men are too superior to be on the same grounds with women for the need of help’’. But an innocent woman felt that she was considered a equal.  What to do to terminate such laws and bring about a gender neutral law? Such laws can be terminated only if, women in India understand equality. Its only their voice that will sort this issue. Its true, women were sexually harassed, its true they were man-handled, subjected to dowry, etc .But say, in case of the alimony issue, had a woman stood out and said to the man ,” Just shut the f*** up. We don’t need your money. We are equals. We don’t need sympathy.” I would have been happy. That is what equality is for me. An equal woman would have said "don’t see us differently. We are just like how you men are." But whenever they were protected and rendered more weak with the provisions of such facilities, reservations, Domestic violence (DV act), Adultery (497) they felt special and important. You cant help such laws when an Indian women even now sees herself different from a man. Finally, these laws came into existence to please a mourning woman and to make her feel safe and men were not included under the same act because it were the same male chauvinists who laid down those laws and they always taught they were superior to women and didn't need protection. So its really up to the women in India to decide if they want to be equal with men or be protected by men. According to me, each woman is as good and capable as a man, so stop asking for protection and just stamp your authority. And these laws are only to just show you that you are still the weaker part in the society. to make a final point, NO, women do not wield too much power due to such laws. Unfortunately we are making them weaker and more pampered and these laws can be made just and applicable to a man too only if a women stamps her equality and demands a impartial law.