Guest: Deepika Narayan Bharadwaj. She is a documentary filmmaker and journalist, director of “Martyrs of marriage” on Netflix and the upcoming documentary film “India’s sons”.

She discussed with us about false rape cases and how they ruin the lives of people in our country and how to spread awareness regarding the same.

 

Listen to the Podcast here: https://anchor.fm/chirag-barjatya/episodes/Podcast-on-False-Rape-Cases-with-Deepika-Narayan-Bhardwaj-e5kf3i

 

What can be the reasons for which men are accused in rape cases?

• The law is biased towards the female gender.
• Men can be wrongly accused of the greed of money.
• To hide their own mistakes.
• To take benefits of the law and order.
• In order to gain fame on social media. For example: #MeToo movement.
• Personal reasons.

 

Why is it so easy to accuse men wrongly?

• Society has been following a mindset that men are always wrong and women are always correct.
• The law is biased towards women and their statements.
• The court doesn’t ask a woman any evidence to prove her point but her statement is enough to be verbal evidence of the situation.
• There are no media trials for women.
• Media is not allowed to expose any woman’s face on social media or news channels.
• Even if the man is proven innocent, there is no law to punish the woman for her false allegations.

 

What are the consequences a man has to face after false rape accusations?

• As the law is very strict and biased towards women, the man has to collect enough evidence for the court sessions.
• Mental depression is a very obvious thing to occur after knowing that he has been falsely blamed.
• Career issues start coming up because of social validation.
• Self-image is spoiled for society.
• The tiniest of cases appear on the internet and cannot be removed ever.
• Not being able to rebound from all the damage caused to him.

 

What is the rate of cases that are false?

• 60% of the filed cases are found to be false but never rechecked if it is a woman’s mistake.
• The conviction rate currently is about 30% only and gradually falling with time.
• National crime record mentions 10 thousand cases on rape on a promise to marry.

 

What is the role of police in this? And how can they help?

• The police eventually send a case to the court after filing the FIR because the police follow the law and are not the one who decides what and who is wrong or right but the court.
• Such cases are usually considered very sensitive, the reason why police don’t have much involvement in them.
• The lady’s statement is taken and itself is evidence for what happened with her, whether truth or false.

 

Justifying false rape cases with “feminism”:

• Feminism is all about balance on both the sides, striving for equal rights and not biased opinions favouring only women.
• One should never ignore the truth just because it is uncomfortable.

 

Advice for men:

• Discuss things: if you know you are not wrong, speak up. Talk about it to friends and family who will support you.
• Don’t be scared. Men are usually scared that no one believes in their words but don’t understand that it is necessary to come out.
• There are many men’s organization such as Sahodar group which supports them in such situations.
• Also, SAVE INDIAN FAMILY organization looks after such cases and as recruited the best lawyers for the same.