Celebrating the defeat of family-breaker, Renuka Chaudhary

All India Forgotten Women (Regd.)

Press Release

Sub: Celebrating the defeat of family-breaker, Renuka Chaudhary.

All India Forgotten Women (Regd.) celebrates the defeat of family-breaker, ex-Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Renuka Chaudhary, in the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections.

Smt. Renuka Chaudhary’s term as Minister of Women and Child Development witnessed the arrest and ruthless incarceration of thousands of innocent men, along with women, senior citizens and children. In the last four years alone, 1,23,439 women have been unfairly arrested under IPC section 498A, without evidence or investigation. Smt. Renuka Chaudhary blatantly denied misuse of IPC Section 498A and turned down all requests, recommendations and demands from various quarters to review the law. It was not until the Minister for Human Resources Development, Arjun Singh, was accused of dowry harassment that Smt. Renuka Chaudhary finally acknowledged the misuse of anti-dowry laws in public. Nevertheless, law-abiding citizens continue to be summarily arrested on false charges of dowry harassment every day.

Smt. Renuka Chaudhary got the infamous Domestic Violence Act passed during her tenure without any debate or discussion on its relevance or pros and cons to the Indian society prior to its enactment. She promoted the DV Act as one of the most progressive legislations passed to empower women in India and to protect them from domestic abuse. In reality, the DV Act is a socially harmful legislation that facilitates violence against men, violates basic human rights of men, women and children, and promotes family destruction.

When questioned on National TV about misuse of women-protection laws, Smt. Renuka Chaudhary blatantly said, “it is men’s turn to suffer”. When Karan Thapar asked her in an interview if she thought that men should first suffer before she considers amendments to check misuse of the law she replied, ““It is not such a bad idea, except that I have such pity for men.” In another instance, she publicly urged women to trust condoms and not their husbands. These are just a few instances which betray Smt. Renuka Chaudhary’s hatred of men.

It is not as if Smt. Renuka Chaudhary’s Ministry has done much good for children either. Child abuse, child labour and malnutrition among children are as rampant as ever. Disregarding recommendations of HRD and Finance Ministries, Smt. Renuka Chaudhary pushed for distributing pre-packaged food instead of freshly cooked hot meals to malnourished children under the Integrated Child Development Scheme. When she was requested to take immediate action on the issue of sexual and physical abuse of several little girls at an orphanage in Ghaziabad, she replied, “We can’t react like Hindi movies and just rush. Inquiries are going on.” Passing the buck on the issue of victims of child labour and physical abuse she said, “The law is there but I can’t do anything in that case. Please ask the labour minister.”

It is a shame that a gender extremist like Smt. Renuka Chaudhary, who has no empathy for the plight of children, was appointed as the Minister of Women and Child Development.

All India Forgotten Women (Regd.) considers the defeat of Smt. Renuka Chaudhary as the beginning of the end of anti-male, anti-family gender extremism in India. AIFW demands that the incoming Government makes the following changes:
·    Ministry of Women’s Welfare should be separated from Ministry of Child Welfare.
·    Responsible, balanced and pro-family women should be appointed to head Ministry of Women’s Development and National Commission for Women.