New Delhi, April 21 : These days, if a woman were to simply say that she has been raped or molested even with no evidence supporting her claims, she has the full backing of the law. In some cases some women have misused these laws to drive forth their own selfish agendas, trapping men in false rape and molestation cases. It is in this context that we find Fempowerment Foundation fighting an uphill battle with almost zero reinforcements and no support fire. A battle against the abuse of these laws.
Trying to drive home awareness of an issue that is on the minds of many yet spoken by few due to fears of persecution, Fempowerment goes against these fears and has gone on to make a documentary titled “India’s Sons”. Directed by Deepika Narayan Bharadwaj, the documentary deals with several real life cases where men saw their lives ruined because of false rape charges. Kiren Shrivastav director of Fempowerment Foundation, told UNI more about Fempowerment’s fight against such abuse which is beginning to discredit the very thing they stand for, as such abuse is ruining the very cause of woman empowerment as well as leading to distrust between men and women.
Kiren Shrivastav defined her stand as a “contradiction”, given that Fempowerment works for woman empowerment, but when questioned, she said it works for it in a more “real and practical way” that is Women empowerment for similar rights as men, for education, for pay, not to enable vindictive women to follow through with their agendas with the law blindly aiding and abetting them. Featuring various real life accounts of the abuse of today’s rape and molestation laws, the idea for the movie came when one of Kiren Shrivastav’s own personal friends went through such an ordeal. Kiren said “there have been cases where many women today are using it to run a business, almost like an enterprise”, where they can either extort money or get their partner to do what they want from him by simply putting false charges.
She further added that “with the law on the side of these women, many men have committed suicide or found themselves and their family’s lives ruined. The documentary is a way to spread awareness about the misuse of the law.” The documentary essentially goes on to show the darker side of the law and the difficulties of working for empowering women and how to go about it, when a certain section of women who are already strong enough are more than willing to ruin lives simply because they feel entitled to do so and how movements like “MeToo” have been heavily abused by those women who have their own agendas, be it personal or ideological. Premiering on 22 April in Mumbai, St. Andrews Auditorium, West Bandra the film’s premiere will also have former Justice B.N Srikrishna of the Supreme Court as chief guest. The film will later be released on OTT platforms.
