Men's group demands gender-neutral laws

The Men’s Rights Association (MRA) staged a protest against the Marriage Amendments Bill, 2010 which they term as draconian changes in the Hindu Marriage Act on Saturday.

MRA president Atit Rajpara said the bill has a provision giving power to the courts to not grant a divorce unless the wife was paid adequate amount of money in the name of financial security of the woman. Such powers may result in harassment of men.

He said the bill also provides special powers to wives to oppose the divorce if she was unhappy with the money she received from the husband under section IPC 498 (A), domestic violence act and several other maintenance laws.

According to the MRA, such clauses are outright anti-male and gender-biased and therefore men’s rights activists and organisations are opposing them. Rajpara said the mens’ rights organisations want the bill to be gender-neutral.