Men are victims of domestic violence, too: MP Police
What's the story
While incidents of women being victims of domestic violence are prevalent on a large scale, the cases of men being at the receiving end of domestic violence are also being reported, Madhya Pradesh Police said.
As per the figures collected by MP Police, under separate "wives beating husbands" category based on "Dial-100" complaints, over 800 men faced domestic violence in the last four months.
Domestic Violence
We're counting domestic violence cases under one head: Dial-100 PRO
However, the "cruelty by husbands" towards their wives is still a reality with about 22,000 such complaints received in MP during the past four months, a sociologist said.
"We were counting all domestic violence cases under one head. So, the cases of violence by wives against their husbands were also counted as a part of it," said Hemant Sharma, Public Relations Officer of Dial-100.
New Category
Segregated Dial-100 data and formed a new category: Sharma
MP Police segregated Dial-100 data and formed a new category out of it, of "wives beating husbands", around four months back as till then, they didn't have any concrete figures of such complaints.
"Since this category was formed in January...802 men made calls in the last four months to the Dial-100 service seeking police's help after facing the wrath of their wives," Sharma said.
Data
Highest number of complaints by Indore men
As per MP Police data, 158 domestic violence cases were reported by men in January, 179 in February, 212 in March, and 253 in April. Indore reported the highest number of 72 cases, while in Bhopal, 52 men complained to the police against their wives.
Violence against women
Over 22,000 complaints under "husbands beating wives" category
However, over 22,000 complaints under "husbands beating wives" category were reported to the Madhya Pradesh Police in the January-April period.
Of these, 2,115 complaints were from Indore and 1,546 from Bhopal, according to the police figures.
Arvind Chouhan, the Professor of Social Science at the Barkatullah University in Bhopal, said new trends come to light in the society with the passage of time.
Quote
Women getting aware about gender equality, legal rights: Chouhan
"Women are getting aware about gender equality and their legal rights because these issues are now being publicized widely. Therefore...women are resisting domestic violence," Chouhan said. India has mostly been a patriarchal society; it's unfortunate that women have been victims of violence, he rued.