ARISE, Indian Women, Men forming Against Us.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_16-4-2004_pg9_1

Indian men form harassed husbands club

Thousands of Indian women are tormented by dowry demands, but in a room crammed with dusty files an 87-year-old lawyer fields countless calls complaining of a less publicised problem: husbands harassed by their wives.

AK Singh bellows instructions to the men who call him and gives them the address of his dimly lit office full of cobwebs in a lower-middle-class part of the south Indian technology hub Bangalore.

Singh founded the Harassed Husbands Association in 1994 in the belief that while the spotlight was on abusive husbands, there are also many “poor men tortured by their wives.”“In India many wives take advantage of anti-dowry laws and file false complaints against their husbands,” Singh said.

On his motivation for founding the association, Singh said: “Fortunately there is harmony in my married life.”

But he said he became aware of the abuse of anti-dowry laws when he trained to become a lawyer.

“While in the courts I was moved by the plight of the poor people, particularly husbands harassed by their wives. This forum is not against women but against the provisions of law which favour them,” Singh said.“Many unscrupulous wives misuse the law and approach the police and courts completely forgetting it is their future life which will be marred,” he said. —AFP