Men demand study to look into their issues (Nov 19 is International Men's Day)

After over six decades of independence, not even a single study has been undertaken by the government of India to look into issues faced by men in the domestic sphere, according to a local NGO fighting for "men's rights".

"Not even a single study has ever been conducted to know the problems faced by men," Children's Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP) founder-president Kumar V. Jahgirdar told IANS on the eve of the International Men's Day.

"We are not against women and laws protecting them. What we want is a ministry of men to look into our issues exclusively," he said.

CRISP, with regional chapters in Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Lucknow, will hold programmes Tuesday to highlight issues that affect the men and demand gender-neutral laws.

Anil Kumar, founder-member Confidare India, a company which operates India's first men's rights community centre in Bangalore, said that often the abused men do not have any support system when they face any matrimonial dispute.

"They often give in to the abuse by either paying huge amounts of money in the shape of 'settlement money' to their estranged wives or commit suicide," he said.

Confidare India started the community centre to enable men to talk and share about challenges and stressful aspects of life, especially marital and relationship problems.

Virag Dhulia, head of gender studies of Confidare, said that so far over 300 men have taken up Confidare's help for counselling.