This Pune samiti fights for the rights of men

This Pune samiti fights for the rights of men

An organisation which fights for the rights of men as well as tries to prevent divorces may seem an oddity to many. But, the Purush Hakka Saurakshan Samiti has been doing just that since it was set up in 1996, according to the Pune representative of the samiti Santosh Shinde. Shinde said, “Our head Balasaheb Patil established this samiti for two reasons. The first is to help men against whom false complaints of dowry harassment or domestic violence have been filed, and the second to prevent divorces by counselling couples and getting them to reconcile.” “In Maharashtra as a whole, there are 500-600 members in the samiti, while in Pune there are 11. We do not advertise in any way, people approach us purely through word of mouth. Whenever we get a complaint we immediately ask the opposite party to give us their side of the story. We then seek the merits of the case and counsel both the husband and wife,” Shinde said. He added, “We have found that in many cases women file false cases of harassment under 498 (a) or the DV Act as their parents and relatives encourage them to do so, believing the laws to be on the woman’s side. That’s why we are demanding that a separate section 498 (b) be introduced, wherein the husband or his relatives can file complaints. This is in keeping with the principle that all are equal before the law.” We also have prepared a book in Marathi ‘Khas purushanthi 498 (a) pasun suraksha’ on how men can protect themselves from false cases under 498 (a), and published it in February, of which the first 1,000 copies have been sold out,” Shinde claimed. Vijay Deshmukh (name changed to protect identity), said, “In 2008, due to a lot of problems in my marriage, I had decided to get a divorce. However my father’s friend told me about this samiti, so my wife and I went for counselling there. The members made us realise that divorcing over small arguments was pointless and made us aware of our respective mistakes. I am grateful to the samiti for saving my marriage.”