In India in 2021, on an average, more than 13 men committed suicide every hour. This is abnormally higher in comparison to the reported cases among women and transgenders - in India, among every three deaths by suicide, more than two are of men
NOTE: Do not expect a "balanced" article, as that has not been the intent here. The following article focuses the challenges faced by men. Anything else is not within the scope. Any intention not mentioned must not be assumed.
September 2022, Chandigarh University. Allegedly, a girl was found recording objectionable videos of her hostel mates and was sending those videos to a boy in another city. On finding out the student body at the university protested vehemently, and rightly so! Hostel should be a safe place for the students. If the allegations are true, the culprits deserve harshest punishments. Media reported the incident and subsequent unfoldings. But the treatment of accused by the media was differential. Most of the news channels have attempted to keep the identity of the accused girl protected. Well justified! The crime has not been proven yet. But, the men were not so lucky! Even the renowned and “responsible” media enterprises left nothing for doubt - their names, their occupations, and even their photos were published across media channels. Hindustan Times, in its report on 27th September 2022, reported the names of both the male accused (Link here). Reportedly, Aaj Tak displayed the picture of one of the male accused within the first few days of the issue gaining public attention (Related link here). A video published by Oneindia News on 18th September 2022 shows the girl confessing that she recorded videos. Her face was blurred, for all the right reasons. But the photo she displayed to the camera - of Rankaj Verma, or the name with which she had saved the number - was not blurred (Link here). Maybe, for the “responsible” journalists, his life is not that much of a value!
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Accused girl’s face blurred, while that of the boy shown clearly by Aaj Tak (Link here) Apparently, Aaj Tak has already solved the case and delivered the verdict |
In early October, Rankaj Verma was granted bail. “The fact has come to light that the girl student who was allegedly apprehended making the objectionable videos was receiving calls from a mobile number which was being used by another accused. The display picture was of applicant Rankaj Verma.”, one of the judicial magistrate was quoted by Hindustan Times (Link here). In an interview to a popular YouTube channel Peepoye, Rankaj Verma explained how he, his family and his friends had to suffer for more than two weeks, and continue to suffer in one way or the other, because the media, activists and people on the social media had already declared him the culprit (Link here). He had to go through the agony of living in the jail; his parents and family members had to live in fear because of the life threats they got. All that may be incomparable to the mental trauma of being labeled as the culprit of a heinous crime. As the air has cleared, the media and the popular activists must have apologised, at least privately to Rankaj, right? Wrong! As reported by Rankaj in the same interview, no media channel had asked for an apology. The interview was broadcasted on 23rd October 2022, sixteen days after the news of Rankaj’s bail was published.
Rankaj Verma and his family had the courage to face all the atrocities. Also, he had friends and relatives who fought for him, and the efforts from YouTubers such as Peepoye helped him get public support. But, sadly, not everyone has been so lucky! Manav Singh, a Class XII boy, committed suicide in 2020. Reportedly, a girl had accused him on social media of raping her, and the post had gone viral. The 16-17 year old boy could not handle the pressure and humiliation, and jumped out from the 11th floor (Link here). Kin of Manav took the girl to court, but according to a press release of June 2021, sadly, the accused girl and her friends were not punished (Link here). In another incident, in August 2022, a 30 year old man hung himself from a tree over an alleged fake rape case filed against him (Link here). Then there is the Dimapur incident of 2015, Delhi suicide case of March 2021, and so on… the list is endless.
Also, such instances of fake allegations, and subsequent ruination of lives are not new. In 2001, a rape accused of Lalitpur district in Uttar Pradesh was imprisoned. Twenty years later, Allahabad High Court deemed the rape case false, and he was acquitted. (Link here) In these twenty years, he lost his parents, source of income and land. Coming from the era when mobile phones were more of a fantasy than reality, he does not know how he will survive in the ‘new world’. In another case, a resident of Orissa was acquitted of rape charges after he had spent nine years in jail. (Link here). All those years lost!
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| Source: https://theprint.in/india/how-do-i-start-life-at-43-asks-vishnu-tiwari-who-spent-20-years-in-jail-in-false-rape-case/618521/ |
One might argue that the cases presented here are cherry picked to garner support for the agenda. So, let us look at the numbers, to get a clearer picture.
Let’s talk statistics
The investigation found that out of all the complaints, a staggering 53.2% complaints were false
Following the unfoldings after the horrific Nirbhaya incident of 2012, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), a statutory body of the Government of Delhi, investigated all the complaints of rape filed between April 2013 and July 2014 in Delhi. The investigation found that out of all the complaints, a staggering 53.2% complaints were false (Link here). This means that a complaint of rape in Delhi in that period was more likely to be false, than true. “It is sad that people are misusing the rape laws to settle scores, while there are so many women who have nowhere to turn to in genuine cases. How will they gather the guts if this turns out to be the trend? A victim's family will also dissuade her from complaining”, Shamina Shafiq of the National Commission of Women was quoted by India Today.
A detailed analysis of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for Delhi by The Hindu, a prominent media enterprise, revealed some equally grim findings. Decoding the mathematics in the report (Link here), it is understood that out of all the FIRs filed for sexual assault in Delhi in 2013, the crime was established in fewer than one-third cases. The major share - one in every three FIRs - was of cases where consensual sex was reported as sexual assault.
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| Haryana State Crime Record Bureau data Source: https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/40-rape-cases-declared-false-by-haryana-police-315777 |
Obviously, the data is outdated, and it’s very specifically about a particular geography. I could not find more recent data on the same, probably because this issue does not gain enough public attention for institutions to update the statistics frequently. Also, the intention is not to provide the exact size of the problem. The intent is, rather, to sensitise the readers to the fact that false allegations don’t just exist, but are a major problem. And lives are ruined due to such allegations.
While the problem of false rape allegations is massive in itself, the ecosystem that targets men is much bigger. Exploitation of men and their families in domestic violence and dowry related harassment cases has been a concern of mens’ right activists, indicating that this could be a large-scale issue that needs our attention. The law, as per the experts, confers unbalanced powers to the complainant. “Section 498A criminalizes the act of cruelty toward a wife. Under the law, the offense of dowry harassment is cognizable, non-bailable, and non-compoundable. The law requires the victim’s testimony be taken as evidence entirely and gives power of arrest to the police at the request of the complainant. This means that no investigation or evidence is required prior to the arrest.” This is how swaddle.com explains Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 (Link here).
The epidemic we don’t talk about
While the gap was found negligible among minors, the share of male victims was 80% for the 45-60 year age group
In India in 2021, on an average, more than 13 men committed suicide every hour. Yes, EVERY HOUR! (Link here). This is abnormally higher in comparison to the reported cases among women and transgenders - in India, among every three deaths by suicide, more than two are of men. In fact, in the last two decades, while the number of deaths by suicide of women have dropped marginally, the same has increased of men by a staggering 48% (Link here). This is disproportionately larger than the population growth in India in the same period. The figure below - number of suicides in India from 1967 to 2019 - visualises this gap. Red denotes the number of male victims, and Green denotes the number of female victims.
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| Male suicides to female suicides statistics since 1967 Source: https://www.daaman.org/post/ncrb-suicides-india-lost-97613-sons-in-2019 |
The rising number of men committing suicide was not unpredictable. As evident from the visual above, the gap between men and women has constantly been rising since the last 5 decades. Cognizant of these facts, we can seek support for a 2015 report of Times of India (Link here) to dig deeper. According to the report, which analysed 2014 NCRB data on suicides, the gap between the number of male and female victims increases with their age. While the gap was found negligible among minors, the share of male victims was 80% for the 45-60 year age group. Also, among the married victims, 69% were found to be men.
The numbers clearly show that our society is a messed up and dangerous place for our brothers, fathers and husbands. And, the rising trend, along with our lack of intent to talk about it guarantees that we shall be leaving an even more dangerous society for our sons and grandsons.
Married victims - Cascading effect on the society
Various studies across the globe have suggested that the absence of a biological father increases the chances of men getting involved in crime, and women getting pregnant in adolescence.
As mentioned earlier, among the married victims in 2015, more than two third were men. While each and every life matters, and each and every suicide is an event of failure of us all as a society, studies show that the loss of married people - in our context, married men - has a cascading effect which may impact generations. Various studies across the globe have suggested that the absence of a biological father increases the chances of men getting involved in crime, and women getting pregnant in adolescence.
Clinical psychologist Jenny Taylor conducted an experiment on low intellectual ability teenage male subjects from working-class families in London (Link here). Her key finding was that among the “good boys” - boys who had no criminal convictions or troubles in their schools - 80% had a close relationship with their biological fathers. 55% of the “good boys” lived with their biological fathers, compared to only 4% of the “bad boys” - boys with criminal records or reported troubles at their schools.
The adverse impact is not just on the boys. Referring to the conclusions of various studies, psychologytoday.com (Link here) claims “Girls whose fathers left either before they were born or up to age 5 were seven to eight times more at risk of becoming pregnant as an adolescent than girls living with their fathers. A father's departure between ages 6 to13 suggested a two to three times greater risk of becoming pregnant.”
Dr. Robert Glover, in his book No More Mr. Nice Guy argues that the absence of fathers results in the absence of a male role-model in kids’ lives. Kids who are not raised in the active presence of their fathers, or do not have a good relationship with their fathers, tend to have a severe inferiority complex, which they try to overcome by other means.
The role of men in the family, in specific, and in society, in general, cannot be explained in short. But, I think for the context of this article, what has been mentioned serves the purpose.
What Can We Do?
Discouragement of sexism in society should be the first step. And, for now, let’s focus on the first step itself
A few years back, in a reported case of molestation, a news article mentioned that the girl was being questioned by police. “Blaming the victim!” was the label one of my classmates gave it in her whatsapp status. I agree that blindly blaming the victim is stupid, cruel and unlawful. But, how did my classmate conclude that the girl was the victim?
A healthier India that provides a safer environment to our men - something that exists, certainly, but not today - calls for many changes in our society. More balanced legal framework, more long-term perspective among the corporate houses, and a lot more. But, according to me, the most important change is the discouragement of sexism in society. Sexism hurts everyone. We, as a society, have grown-up a lot since we started calling out the instances of sexism against women. Now, as we mature, we must acknowledge, look for, and try to rectify such instances against men. I am talking about the news channels who thought it was perfectly fine to reveal the identity of Rankaj Verma, and not even apologise for it. I am also talking about the young boys, of class 2nd and 3rd or even younger, who are punished in school for something, while their girl classmates are spared for the exact same mistake. And, I am talking about everything that lies in between. I think that should be the first step!
Discouragement of sexism in society should be the first step. And, for now, let’s focus on the first step itself!
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