Men: the forgotten gender

Friends, whenever we talk about women being harassed, being raped, being discriminated, never do a voice raises and says, “Hey does it happen to men?”. Yes, it does happen to men too… Discrimination, harassment and yes, RAPES. No, I don’t oppose women empowerment, but I oppose the crimes against men in the name of women empowerment. Empowering women don’t mean disempowering men. Empowering one means empowering all. Now, I know what you might be thinking. “MEN RAPE”, right? As rape is always associated with female victims and male abusers… but female victims? And male abusers?! Does it make sense?! Oh yes, it does.

According to a 2013 survey, nearly 40% of the rapes all over the world were against men. And 355 of which were women abusers! Hard to believe? But true! And after this, The Indian government, IPC section 354A, 354B, 354C and 354D dealing with sexual harassments, refers to men the abusers and women as the victims of these crimes. No laws to protect men against rape. Even the definition of rape in the Indian Constitution starts with, “A man is said to commit rape…” and so on. Men are not protected by the law, nor the constitution neither by the literature. Just because of this, 63% of man’s sexual assaults are not even reported. IS THIS WOMEN EMPOWERMENT?

Friends, did you hear that news, a few months ago a lady poured fevikwik into her husband’s eyes. Not fevicol mind it, but fevikwik. Which when unfortunately falls on someone’s skin, hardens it.  A few more drops might even burn it. This insane act was done just because that poor man didn’t have enough money in his pocket to take his wife to a fair. IS THIS WOMEN EMPOWERMENT?

Gender-based laws like dowry, domestic violence etc. Have become a profitable business for girls and their families nowadays. Don’t believe me? Alright, there are about 75,000 fake dowry cases registered in INDIA. Fake as in, FAKE. As a result, these 75,000 thousand INNOCENT men were put behind bars, tortured and harassed. And after they came out, they lost their jobs, their self-respect, their house, their dignity, their reputation, EVERYTHING! Because of which 63,000 men committed SUICIDE.

According to my knowledge when the Titanic first sank down, the calls for lifeboats were, “Women and children first!” “Women and children first!” The men were expected to stay behind and sink?! That means if a woman is in trouble then help is on the way. But if a man is in trouble then trouble is where you stay?! When a woman cries than the entire world comes to know about it. But if a man cries, he himself tries not to know about it. Because “man don’t cry”, they are not allowed to.

I always fail to see the equality between men and women nowadays. I mean, we say women are as capable as men, as strong as men, as smart as men, as powerful as men, in fact, we say women are nowadays two steps ahead of men. If you genuinely believe that, genuinely. Then there should be no special privileges made and that goes for BOTH the genders.

What I mean to say is crimes are on both the sides, men, and women. Discrimination, both sides. Harassment, both sides. Guilt, both sides. BUT the voice we hear, the protest, we see, the candle march we organize, the tears we shed, the emotions we lose, just for one only for women?

If negativity spreads on both the sides than light must be drawn on both the sides. A candle that enlightens both the sides equally, is the only thing that my voice demands.               —Vickey Goyal