Domestic violence against men literally means abuse perpetrated on men by their intimate partners or families. Men rarely surface as victims of domestic violence. The superior position enjoyed by men in human society, makes one believe that they are not vulnerable to violence, within the safe precincts of their homes.

Statistics drawn from surveys reveal otherwise, especially in recent times; whence men and women are shown to be equally violent. It’s a pity that very little data is available about men who are abused by their male or female domestic partners compared to women all over the world, because domestic violence against men is also a fact. “Battered men” – is indeed a social problem that deserves attention. It is believed that men who live with another male as sexual partners are more vulnerable to violence, than men who live with women. But men’s being violated by women – is also a historical fact of human society. The phenomenon of abused men is prevalent all over the world, just like the violation of women. It has been researched that 3.2 million men against 5.3 million women have been subjected to minor insistence of abuse like pushing, shoving, slapping, grabbing and hitting per year. In the US 800.000 men per year are either physically assaulted or raped by their partners. That boils down to 3.2%. And 3% percent of non-fatal violence against men stemming from domestic situations. Men are normally very reluctant to report domestic abuse to the police or judiciary unless it is life threatening.

A strange thing was witnessed on august 26, in Delhi, the capital of India – last year. August 26 is celebrated as International women’s equality day all over the world. The central zone for social protest ironically came alive on this day last year in India’s capital, with hoards of men shouting slogans like “stop husband suicides, stop legal terrorism and protect the elderly from the N.C.W”.

N.C.W stood for a grim reality – “National Criminal Wives”. The save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF) is a new organization formed by a nation wide group of some eight thousand Indian men – most of them corporate managers, marketing executives and officers of the service sector. Men too are the victims of domestic violence in India like other parts of the world – and are becoming aware of this fact.

The SIFF claims that Indian men are being increasingly violated by abusive wives, their families and greedy lawyers. Scheming women are violating men and their families by using laws like IPC 498 and domestic violence act. These laws deal with dowry harassment, female abuse, money exploitation, child custody and misappropriation of family property. SIIFF also claims that the high ratio of male to female suicides in recent times (64:36) is primarily due to domestic cruelty against men. This can be verified by viewing the records of national crime bureau curtsey 2005.

The movement for men’s rights has become a surprising byproduct of the women’s rights movement in India. The species of battered men have no means of protection, like their empowered wives – in the modern world. Every domestic squabble is manipulated to look like an act of cruelty and every marital argument is being translated into legal jargon, threatening the very foundation of the institution of marriage and society. Single parent families are on the increase and the father is becoming a redundant species in the metropolitan cities of the world. Is this actually a reaction to the regressive system of patriarchal society which always ruled in the favor of men in the recent past?