ADULTERY - LEADING CAUSE OF MURDER OF HUSBANDS BY WIVES IN INDIA: REPORT BY EKAM NYAAY FOUNDATION

27 September 2024, Gurgaon

Supreme Court of India decriminalised adultery in 2018, striking down section 497 of Indian Penal Code. The Apex Court said that the law was archaic and paternalistic, and that it infringed on women's autonomy and dignity. Adultery, however now seems to be the biggest reason for murder of men by their wives in collusion with her lover and a reason for suicide by many married men.

Gurgaon based NGO Ekam Nyaay Foundation has released a report documenting cases of murder of husbands by wives and suicides by men due to false accusations, cruelty by partner and domestic violence. The research comprises of such incidents reported in media and the NGO says that actual incidents must be much higher in numbers.

The report documents 306 cases where a man was murdered by his wife or intimate partner in 2023 across India. Out of these, 213 cases are those where a husband was murdered by his wife in collusion with her lover for various reasons like the husband objecting to the affair, the husband having caught his wife red handed or the husband stopping the wife from carrying on her extra marital relationship. Other prominent reason for these murders are monetary disputes between couple, domestic quarrel and suspicion. Brutal murders have been documented by the organization where husbands were chopped in pieces, poisoned, stabbed, strangled or beaten up to death. In several cases, initially the wife was not caught as she either removed all the evidence or passed it as suicide to mislead public and police. Maximum age of the victims in these cases is 75 and minimum 18. The report laments that while some of these cases are extremely brutal, they do not gather much attention and remain oblivious to common public leading to a perception that only men are violent.

A total of 517 cases of suicides by men have also been documented in the report where most prominent reason for suicides are mental cruelty, false accusations, extra marital affair of wife and domestic violence. 235 cases of suicide because of mental cruelty, 47 due to Adultery, 45 due to false accusations, 22 due to Domestic Violence along with 168 due to Suspicion or Abandonment or Cheating or Monetary disputes have been captured in the study.

Speaking to the media, Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj, founder of Ekam Nyaay Foundation said “At Ekam Nyaay Foundation, our endeavour is to bring forth issues that men and their families are facing in the society today due to legal and social apathy. This research report aims at bridging the gap of unavailability of any data to establish that men are also victims of violence and abuse at the hands of women today and our laws need to be gender neutral to provide recourse, relief and justice to such men. Intimate partner violence can have serious consequences on the person who experiences it and men are silent sufferers of the same. There is unrest in society due to rampant abuse of laws by women of which men are the biggest victims. So many men are killing themselves. Our lawmakers should take a note because men are also citizens of this country and they should be protected too.”

As per NCRB, a total of 1,22,724 men died by suicide in 2022 as compared to 48,172 women. Number of married men who died by suicide in 2022 was 82,000. The most common cause of suicide of men in 2022 was family problems that took 38904 lives. Marriage related issues led to suicide by 5891 Men.

Ekam Nyaay Foundation, founded in 2024 is an NGO that is helping men in distress and their families. It is led by Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj, Independent Journalist and documentary filmmaker who has been working on men’s issues since more than a decade and has made documentary films like Martyrs of Marriage on misuse of dowry laws and India’s Sons on survivors of false rape cases. Both the films are on Jio Cinema. The organization provides counselling and legal guidance, spreads awareness on men’s issues and is undertaking research projects to bring out plight of men who suffer. The NGO also intervenes in cases of suicides, false accusations and helps families fight for justice. The research report is now available on the organization’s website www.ekamnyaay.org