The Supreme Court of India is set to hear a public interest litigation (PIL) on July 3, seeking the establishment of a National Commission for Men. The petition, filed by advocate Mahesh Kumar Tiwari, calls for guidelines to address the issue of suicide among married men subjected to domestic violence. The plea also seeks to safeguard their interests through the proposed commission.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The case, listed before a bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta, cites data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) published in 2021. According to the NCRB report, out of the 1,64,033 suicides recorded across the country that year, 81,063 were married men, while 28,680 were married women.
The petition states,
“Around 33.2% men ended their lives because of family problems and 4.8% due to marriage-related issues in the year 2021. In this year total 1,18,979 men have committed suicides which are about (72%) and total 45,026 women have committed suicides which are about 27%.”
Tiwari’s plea also seeks direction to the National Human Rights Commission to address the issue of suicide among married men and to accept complaints from men suffering from domestic violence. It calls for the Ministry of Home Affairs to issue guidelines to police authorities across the country, instructing them to accept complaints from victims of domestic violence or those under stress due to family problems and marriage-related issues. These complaints should then be referred to the State Human Rights Commission for proper disposal.
The petition further urges the Law Commission of India to conduct research on the issue of suicides among married men suffering from domestic violence or under stress due to family or marriage-related problems. The findings of this research could potentially inform the establishment of the proposed National Commission for Men.
The hearing of this PIL marks a significant development in the discourse around men’s rights and the need for institutional mechanisms to address issues faced by men, particularly in the context of domestic violence and family-related stress.