Under the proposed PREVENTION OF COMMUNAL AND TARGETED VIOLENCE (ACCESS TO JUSTICE AND REPARATIONS) BILL, 2011, the sole testimony of a victim will be enough to convict a man of sexual assault. From the draft bill:
EVIDENCE
70. Evidentiary standard for sexual assault.- Upon the sole testimony of the victim of sexual assault, the Designated Judge appointed under this Act may conclude that an offence of sexual assault has been committed by the accused against the said victim.
An additional sessions judge in Delhi is facing flak for observing that girls are morally bound not to have sex before marriage.
A former Supreme Court chief justice said that he would have taken action against the Delhi judge.
In a recent discussion on a TV channel about men’s suicides in India, the woman panelist gave some interesting opinions about the importance (or lack of it) of men’s suicides. The video is linked below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cT6n9D0PZY
At 36:00 min, the woman makes a comments which would gladden the hearts of all radical feminists. She says:
There is a trend in media and society to discredit and denigrate all men in general, and so it should come as no surprise that the personal life and reputation of someone like Albert Einstein could also not have been immune to such perfidious onslaught.
Here is an interesting news story based on statistics about divorce filings in Mumbai:
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/1896919/report-women-put-off-divorce-to-benefit-from-marriages-law-amendment-bill
Women are playing the waiting game when it comes to getting divorced.
Between January and August this year, divorce cases in Mumbai fell by 23% compared to the corresponding period last year.
Government’s proposal to include sexual assault on men and boys on par with erstwhile term rape under Section 376 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) is a welcome and long overdue move.
The proposal before the Cabinet seeks to change the definition of “rape” as a crime involving sexual assault of women and defined by forcible penetration. The move now is to expand the definition to include male victims of sexual assault as well by changing the relevant provisions of the IPC, Evidence Act and CrPc. If the proposal goes through, “rape” as a category of crime will cease to exist in the statute books, as the proposal is to replace it with “sexual assault”—a gender-neutral distinction.
What exactly is the message National Commission for Women(NCW) has for Indian women is an interesting question! Just a few months back, the NCW chairperson Mamta Sharma made news for advising women that being called sexy could be taken as a complement rather than as an affront.
Well here is a complete about turn from the same Mamta ‘foot-in-the-mouth’ Sharma now advising women to dress carefully in order to avoid attacks on them. News below:
Maybe Indian lawmakers need to learn from China rather than aping the West in hastily proposing amendments under Hindu Marriage Act which will give women the power of giving no-fault divorce and take away 50% of husbands’ property(and more) for a marriage which might have lasted only 1 day.
In India, it is a proud moment when there is a news reported of women standing equal shoulder with men and taking up traditional men’s jobs – like airline pilot, in military, auto-driver, taxi driver, and so on; but then their jobs are labelled as ‘risky’ and dangerous when they do these job in same conditions as men do and it does not seem so appealing anymore. Is not women taking up risky jobs a small cost to pay for women empowerment? Equal pay for equal work also means Equal work for equal pay! News below:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Make-moms-first-guardians-Panel/articleshow/12615525.cms
The same planning commission in news for recommending Rs 32/day as poverty line and for renovating 2 toilets (ok 10 toilet seats) for Rs 35 lakh has been short of progressive ideas, hence this hare-brained scheme from them. If they only looked at custody orders in family courts, they will realize it is fathers who are in dire need to be given more custody rights so they are not kicked out of children’s life except as an ATM machine and sperm donors!