25th June, 2008, New Delhi: Round Table on Building Partnership with Men to Promote Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment:
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The introductory panel comprised of Ms. Renuka Chowdhury, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Women and Child Development, Dr. (Mrs.) Kiran Chadha, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ms. Sushma Kapoor, Deputy Regional Programme Director, UNIFEM South Asia and Mr. Rahul Roy from Aakar. The conference was introduced as a platform, which could enable an exchange of experiences of different professionals, working towards partnering with men on gender issues.
Ms. Renuka Chowdhury, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Women and Child Development, called upon men to play a significant role in promoting gender equality. While delivering the key note address, she stressed the importance of women and men supporting each other. Ms. Chowdhury said that everyone was aware of the various crimes against women in certain areas. “What we understand as the condition of ‘marriage squeeze’, is visible in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and even the posh and evidently educated locality of South Delhi. But we have to stop and ask ourselves – can we as a country move forward without women?” According to Ms. Chowdhury, “if our country can’t even support its women, it is not a fault of the government, but of society.” She stressed that the purpose of the meeting was not to make new laws but rather to facilitate effective implementation of existing laws and to find ways in which both women and men can succeed and move forward as equal partners.
Dr. (Mrs.) Kiran Chadha, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, in her welcome address stated that the meeting sought to provide a platform to discuss the manner through which men could be involved in the process of achieving gender equality. Focusing on the pros, cons and implementation of acts, such as those pertaining to domestic violence and anti-dowry, she emphasized that this meeting, was not about laws and amendments, but was a move to further the protection of women’s rights.
Ms. Sushma Kapoor, Deputy Regional Programme Director of UNIFEM South Asia, recounted UNIFEM’s association with the initiative, which went back to 1997. She recalled that through a regional conference that year, jointly organized by UNIFEM and UNICEF ROSA, a region-wide movement, to include men, in the prevention of violence against women, was catalyzed. UNIFEM has, in the course of this work, supported research, films, photographs, an exhibition on masculinities and travelling seminars through the university systems, to generate and map a body of knowledge on masculinities, besides setting up a course on the subject at the Department of Sociology, University of Delhi. “For things to really change we need to acknowledge that violence is not just a women’s problem; that it is everyone’s problem”, she said.
Ms. Kapoor requested Ms. Renuka Chowdhury to endorse the Say NO to Violence against Women campaign (www.sayNOtoviolence.org) initiative launched by UNIFEM. By signing up, the Minister has joined a declaration that is being endorsed by leaders and governments from across the globe. This internet based advocacy campaign provides people all over the world with an opportunity to add their names to an ever-growing movement of people demanding that ending violence against women be made a top priority for governments around the world. The initiative is designed to feed into and support UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s campaign on the same issue.
The discussion that followed was moderated by Mr. Rahul Roy from Aakar, a Delhi based Trust that has been working on issues of men and gender equality for several years.
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Dr. Abhijit Das of Men’s Action for Stopping Violence against Women (MASVAW) talked about the campaign they have been running in 45 districts of Uttar Pradesh and the success they have achieved in providing a platform for men to come out in large numbers against gender based violence. Dr. Ravi Verma from the International Council for Research on Women (ICRW) and Mr. Mahendra Rokde (CORO, Mumbai) shared the findings and results of their intervention research in a low income area of Mumbai which stimulates young men to question traditional norms associated with masculinity and promotes both discussion and reflection about the costs of traditional masculinity as well as the advantages of gender equitable behaviours.
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Ms. Poonam Kathuria from SWATI in Ahmedabad shared her ground level experience of working on cases registered under the Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Act, 2005 and called for a strengthening of the implementation process through trainings of protection officers and the judiciary. Dr. Deepak Mehta from the Department of Sociology, Delhi University pointed out that there is need for more research to better understand the link between violence and masculinity.
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Mr. Ashish Mukhi from Save the Indian Family, stated that the participation of men in issues related to gender equality is not much, because of the misuse of women protection laws in India. He said that there is no deterrent against these laws in the form of preliminary investigations and inquiries. This, he said, resulted in a lack of motivation or a mindset amongst men, to not encourage measures of gender equality, as they feel threatened by such laws.
In response, Dr. Deepak Mehta, explained that the Sri Krishna Enquiry Report clearly stated the alarming proportion of male vs. male violence in Bombay during the 1992 riots. It was not merely a question of violence limited to the domestic sphere but collective violence as well. And this had the potential to seep into the domestic, such that the home no longer remained a private sphere for the working class in India.
Ms. Asmita Basu from the Lawyers Collective further elucidated that the Domestic Violence Act in India, was a gender specific law, which had to be seen in continuum to other gender specific laws. Article 15 (iii) of the Constitution authorizes the government to take special measure for an aggrieved group, if needed, and the law has to be seen within that context. Accordingly, the definition of a respondent is specific to men, because this was a special law.
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Commenting upon the alleged misuse of the women protection laws in India, Dr. Bhagat, noted that men too, have a role in marital conflict and therefore, rather than merely calling for a change in the existing laws, it is important to address the communication gap between the two conflicting parties. Moreover, he argued, that the abuse of 498a, if any, was in fact, not by the women, but by their male lawyers, male police and so on.
Ms. Vrinda Grover, a human rights lawyer and Director, MARG, asserted that they constantly get women, who claim that their First Information Report (FIR) in the context of 498A is not being registered by the police and they have to run pillar to post, to lodge their complaints. It is an over simplification to say that the moment a woman appears before the police with a compliant under 498A, the men are arrested, and this does not match with the reality where women find it extremely difficult to get their complaints addressed.
Summing up the event’s discussions, the Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Ms. Renuka Chowdhury, acknowledged, that men too come under a lot of pressure as a result of gender inequalities. The attempt of the meeting, she said, was to welcome men as partners in preventing gender violence, to have them, as not the problem, but as part of the solution. The discussions in the meeting, further elucidated, that it is becoming increasingly difficult for men to communicate with their children, their parents and the nuclear family system has further contributed to this communication gap.
The Minister also recognized the efforts of NGOs, psychologists, sociologists and professionals from various other fields, who are doing their bit to address this situation. She said that the day’s discussions established that violence was not an economic problem, let alone an Indian problem. It was a global phenomenon that cut across class. Considering the inputs of the day as valuable, she further asserted, that the law is both used as well as misused - however, these are more an exception than the rule. Some of the problems stem from society and needs redress there, rather than through amendments to laws that have been enacted through parliamentary procedures. Lawsa re dynamic and as and when the situations change, laws also change. As of now, the women protection laws of this country are fine.
Several others at the meeting called for more policy level interventions that would enable building of partnerships with men on gender equality. As a beginning the Ministry has been requested to constitute a committee that would prepare a multi-sectoral report on the social and economic costs of masculinities and suggest policy level initiatives that can draw more men to work towards gender equality and violence prevention.