REAL MEN DON’T HIT WOMEN.docVIP

REAL MEN DON’T HIT WOMEN 　　NEIL NITIN MUKESH 　　ACTOR 　　“Women are the reason we come into this world. She’s the reason we are loved, cared for and looked after. They are the ones who define us. They are NOT meant to be abused and should always be respected!” 　　Some women talk about it, others choose to remain silent. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that domestic violence is a very real problem―in a study done by The Thomas Reuters Foundation Trust Law in June 2012, India ranked last among 19 countries in regard to the status of women and their freedom from violence. Gulnar Mehra (not her real name) is a 32-year-old Vice President at an investment banking firm, who always thought domestic violence was something that happened to women who were“either uneducated, dependent and weak, or from a different social and financial strata”. Until it happened to her. “My boyfriend Dhruv was always verbally aggressive when we were fighting, but things got worse after we got married,” she says.“One night, we were arguing and he’d had a bit to drink, when he lost his cool and slapped me. He apologised profusely and I let it go as a one-off incident, but over the next few months, he hit me whenever an argument got out of hand, and once pushed me so hard, I fell on a glass table and cut my head.” Gulnar knew she had to take action, but it took her over two years to finally end her marriage. “I was frightened and confused. Finally, one day my sister saw me trying to conceal a black eye, and forced me to get a divorce.”While Gulnar did finally put an end to the abuse, many women don’t. Clinical psychologist Dr Ann Simi John, Columbia Asia Hospital, Gurgaon, says domestic violence has sadly become a culturally accepted fact, and it’s got to do with social beliefs that men are more powerful than women. So violence becomes a symbol of power in society, and women validate this theory by allowing men to be physically violent.” In fact, her theory finds proof in some rather