“Nearly one lakh men die by suicide ever year due to marriage-related problems,” screamed several television anchors and Men’s Rights Activists on social media, following the suicide of Bengaluru based techie Atul Subhash. The 35-year-old’s death and suicide notes — including one on video — have triggered a widespread debate across India in this regard. Men’s Rights Activists are campaigning with renewed vigour against what they claim are gender-biased laws in India — there’s even a petition to make sections 85 and 86 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) (previously section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)) — which deals with cruelty by husband or his family — gender neutral. The loud claim many are making is that feminism and “women’s empowerment” has gone “too far” — and that there is now a society wide problem of wives driving their husbands to suicide. That in fact, there is no need for laws to exclusively protect women in India.
