Shailesh Raj Koona – Hyderabad

He was working in New Zealand and was leading a very happy life abroad. His blunder in life was to get married to a woman who was from a comparatively poorer family. Before his marriage, he didn’t realize that his NRI life and peace of mind was for a few days. He got married in 2010. She joined him in New Zealand but could not adjust to the NRI lifestyle. She started blaming him for having an affair with other women. She started quarrelling with him over small issues and started telling everyone around about their personal lives and stories of differences between them.

Finally, she came back to India in 2012 and filed a case under the dowry act which is now subjudice. When he came back to India after the cases were filed, his and his other family members passports were seized, he came to know through his research that there are other innocent Indians implicated like him and decided to fight back.

He fights against the gender-biased anti-male and anti-family laws that are destroying Indian families. He wants to bring back a true democracy in India. In his own words – “I will continue to fight whole life and make the world know that people in India are persecuted in the name of women empowerment.”

For young MRAs who have just joined the men’s rights, his message is – “Fight your cases hard and strong but also fight for men’s rights, just like you would for your cases.”

For women victims he says – “Please don’t abuse the laws. If you are a true victim use them, else do not misuse the laws.”

For Indian govt. he says – “Govt. interference is not warranted in private matters like marriage.”

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Amit Gupta, Kolkata

He joined the movement in April 2013. He has come to know about this through www.498a.org website and wanted to fight against legal terrorism so that no one else suffers like him.

His 10 days of marriage ended on a bitter note with his wife filing bouquet of false cases against him. Initial days were tough but within 1.5 years of time, he could quash all false cases against his family members. His wife had implicated his other family members like mother and sister in those false cases whereas she has “not lived with them for more than half an hour” – he said.

His vision about men’s rights is to make people realize that men are suffering too and with limited resources in people/media he wants to make Hridaya as the perfect platform for such victims.

Over the next five years, he wants to achieve the following –

1. Sensitize people about the suffering of men.

2. Bringing in the right balance between rights and responsibilities for everyone.

3. Make SIF a very strong movement so that no one can ignore the movement.

For men suffering from misuse of various laws, he says – “Ignorance of the law is not an excuse in the eyes of law. Come out of the illusion that nothing will happen to me if I have not done anything wrong. Any person in the position of power can abuse the power, so be careful.”

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Amit Lakhani – Delhi

His arranged marriage in 2009 with the only child of her in-laws landed him in trouble within 1.5 months of his marriage. Soon after their marriage, she started separating him from all his relations and as a result, his parents started living separately hoping that their relationship would improve. But it never was. She started checking his phones and emails suspecting him and started following him to his workplace. His life became unbearable.

She left the house in Jan 2011 with all her belongings but after negotiations with her relatives, she has come back again after nine months of separation. But she has never changed herself. She again started all kinds of misbehaviour with him. She left the matrimonial house again in April 2012 and filed divorce and 498a cases against him and his family.

After his false cases, he was doing online research on ‘Life After Divorce’ when he came to know about men’s rights in India. Today he determined to fight against the biased laws and joined the men’s rights movement in India. He is no more a victim today. As he says he gets strength in helping others, in fighting for the cause, fighting against legal terrorism. ‘People do not come forward and fight against this but I wanted to change the same’ – he says.

Today he is not only running Delhi helpline number for distressed men and their family members, but he also participates in TV debates, MP lobbying, organize events, rallies, dharnas etc. He receives at least 6/7 calls daily from distressed men and their mothers and sisters for help. Calls come even from abroad.

For new victims, he says – “As an Indian male, every victim needs to contribute to the society, to the movement and fight for this cause.”He added that – “When one is fighting for a cause one’s own issue looks smaller.”

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Sunil Pawar – Pune

His story is short and crisp. He got married in 2011 and in March 2013 he got false cases against him. At that time he wanted to join some NGO and work for them so joined a child rights group. However, later moved to the Men’s Rights Movement and started contributing to the cause that no one talks about today.

Today, he is so convinced with the men’s rights ideology that he wants to be with the movement for his entire life and help the victims of gender-biased laws.

For the victims of such gender-biased laws he says – “Don’t only think about your own cases as someone somewhere is facing the problems like you. So try to get them out of their problem.”

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Vivek Agarwal – Lucknow

He has joined men’s rights in February 2013.

Even before marriage, he realized that the govt. has given so many weapons in the hands of women that they can use them anytime to ruin a man’s life.

He feels whatever law misuse is happening is wrong so he joined men’s rights to amend the laws.

He wants to make the women realize that these laws are not helping them rather they are also suffering due to these laws.

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For other interviews, see – here