When Husbandry Turns Animal :-

Marriage is considered to be one of the most sacrosanct and inviolable institutions, especially in a heritage-fertile country like India. Outstripping exposure to the Western culture and the twenty first century notion of ‘living together’ have little affected the stereotypic organization and rituals. In English, the term marriage means a legal and formal union of couples, but the Indian term for marriage ‘kalyan’ means prosperity and auspice. Marriage is equated to prosperity and auspice. The perfect idea of a married relationship hails even from the roots of the most ancient scriptures and myths of the country. But, a valid question to be raised is to how much extent has the system of marriage remained undecomposed.

Newspapers, both national and vernacular, are deluged with hordes of multi-dimensional marital issues. There have been numerous cases where the husband has transposed into an ogre. This is completely ironic to title ‘Patidev’ given to Indian husbands which consider husbands equal to Gods. The nation is witnessing a misfortunate tantrum of glorified gods becoming unscrupulous fiends. This means that the wife, who already has been given the position of a ‘worshipper’ by the stereotypical standards, goes further down the hierarchical line to becoming a quarry.

Gender equality and dissents against gender discrimination are not the offspring of today. They were moot themes from time immemorial. But the extent of curtailment and stifling is rising to its acme is a recent phenomenon. These are the days where marriage turns into a state of thralldom, matrimonial columns turn into stock markets, wedlocks become woodlocks - these are the days where husbandry turns animal.

On 18^th July 2011, the newspapers were circulating the nation like blood with a ‘one-of-its kind’ news. It was about something which a normal person could imagine to have happened nowhere save a vampire movie. It was about a husband from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, who drank his wife’s blood. The news revealed that this Patidev has made it a routine to suck blood out of his wife’s body daily to drink, and this was happening taciturnly for three long years. The reason rendered by him for this barbarous act was that drinking the blood made him stronger. Mahesh Ahirwar threatened to kill his wife if she ever had plans to reveal it to the outer world.

If the above given instance was a rare one, there happen to be a plurality of issues concerning women, the married women in our country. One such phenomenon is marital rape. Marital Rape refers to unwanted intercourse by a man with his wife obtained by force, threat of force, or physical violence, or when she is unable to give consent. Bringing statistics into play, it is estimated that every six hours, a young married woman is burnt or beaten to death, or driven to suicide from emotional abuse by her husband. A rapist for a woman is someone who takes away her security, dignity, self-worth and equality more than anything else. Going by these parameters, marital rape becomes worse than a regular rape. Marital rape is the uttermost form of rape. Still, in our country, the marital rapists walk free. The majority of the cases are swamped within the boundaries of the households. The instance of a wife turning a puppet gets followed by numerous instances of the wife remaining a puppet. Not surprisingly, thus, married women were never the subject of rape laws. Laws bestowed an absolute immunity on the husband in respect of his wife, solely on the basis of the marital relation. The revolution started with women activists in America raising their voices in the 1970s for elimination of marital rape exemption clause and extension of guarantee of equal protection to women. In the Indian context, the State and the law-enforcement bodies display a form of passivity.

When rape is considered an offense, marital rape is legal in our country. Doesn’t this also mean marriage is a license to be legally illegal forever? Earlier, the common phenomenon which existed was ‘rape and marry’. You rape a girl first and to avoid turbulences in future, you make things legal by marrying the girl you raped, just like the act of laundering black money. Now things get on the reverse gear where the mantra has become ‘marry and then rape’. 

Another social evil, which has been a curse for the Indian society over centuries of time, is the system of dowry. Dowry is a clear example where women are treated like stocks. They are ascertained financial value and ‘selling price’ as per their caste, color, creed, family background etc. The dowry system gives a picture of a father ‘selling’ his daughter to a third person. The roots of this system can be traced back to a time where the bride’s parents used to give money and jewellery to the bride at the time of the wedding, not out of compulsion but out of sheer joy. It also had the rationality that their daughter’s afterlife should be financially well-off. Later on, this ‘habit’ was transformed into a system, which meant the parents of even a financially backward state, had to drudge for meeting the requirements of his daughter’s wedding. Sadly, the dowry system still prevails in our nation, especially in the rural areas. Tradition becomes a permanent burden.

Dowry is another system by which, the worth of a woman is measured by her mere financial strength and nothing else. This is also such a social wickedness with makes women devoid of self-worth, dignity and her agility. Her qualities which really make her what she is, are buried under stacks of currency notes.

Government introduced the Dowry Prohibition Act on 1st July 1961. Later on, many amendments were added to the Act in order to keep a strict eye on this kind of cruelty. According to the Act anyone taking or giving dowry can be sentenced to imprisonment for 5 years and a fine of Rs 15,000 or the value of dowry if that is more. When a strict rule is prevailing in the country then why women are still facing the problem? It’s really shocking to record the statistics of dowry in the country that shows a steady rise. Rather than subsiding, it is continuously increasing with more and more women getting burnt to ashes. Researches have dictated that about 9, 5000 women in India are stabbed to death over the dowry issue. The statistics are more in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh but sadly the largest IT sector of the country Bangalore has also recorded an alarming rise. 

The evil has spread its tentacles across the country. Women are trying hard to save their lives with the support of legal amendments, media support, serious activism, and heightened awareness. Despite of all these protest why India is still holding the stigma of dowry? Why not women can be completely relieved from this pain and burden? 

Ours is a country which is extremely affected by various kinds of pollutions – air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, noise pollution. But above all these pollutions, our nation is most affected by the mental pollution and the moral pollution of its people. The obstinacy shown in not accepting your counterparts, let that be on the lines of language, culture, caste, creed, color, class or gender, is what has to be curbed immediately. Unless the mental revolution bechances every single person on an individual level, curbing it in the social scenario as a whole will remain a Utopian ideal. It needs a plenitude of commitment and social understanding. Let us hope for a better future.