All India Mother-in-Law Protection Forum (www.aimpf.org)

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A new campaign group, the All India Mother-in-Law Protection Forum, has been set up not only to fight negative stereotyping but also push for greater legal protection of their rights.

"What's happening in India is that mothers-in-law are getting persecuted at the hands of daughters-in-law. This is very rampant everywhere. But it's not come out in the open," said founder member Neena Dhulia.

"It's always happening within the four walls of the house, so the mother-in-law is reluctant to tell anyone because society doesn't accept her... There's no one to listen to her. They are suffering in silence," she told AFP.

The group's chapter in the southern city of Bangalore has some 50 members and since it launched earlier this month has attracted interest from women in Mumbai and New Delhi who want to set up branches, she added.



Members of an Indian mothers-in-law union attending a meeting at Cubbon Park in Bangalore. For years they have been the butt of jokes and regular figures of fun for comedians across the world. A new campaign group, the All India Mother-in-Law Protection Forum, has been set up not only to fight negative stereotyping but also push for greater legal protection of their rights.

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PRESS RELEASE

All India Mother-in-Law Protection Forum (AIMPF) is the first ever social forum created to protect the rights and interests of the mother-in-law. It is a non-funded non-profit organization which will create awareness about the problems faced by mothers-in-law and also fight against the de-facto villainous projection in the socio-legal arena. It can be reached at All India Mother-in-law Protection Forum We are Victims; not Vamps.

The mothers-in-law could not bear the harassment any further and said, “Enough is enough” and got together to campaign against:

1. The stereotyping of mothers-in-law as evil and blood thirsty by media and popular culture. This violates the civil liberties and the constitutional provisions of right to liberty and right to life.
2. It has been scientifically and also statistically established fact that mothers-in-law are unnecessarily maligned and subjected to judgmental attitudes by society.
3. National Family Health Survey (NFHS) (National Family Health Survey Vol-1 Page 500) has conclusively established that a woman in the age group of 15-49 years of age faces 8 times more violence from her own mother compared to mother-in-law. 13.7% women have faced violence from their own mother as compared to 1.7% women who have faced from their mothers-in-law.
4. Recent Research has shown that “daughters-in-law are programmed to hate mothers-in-law”. This is one of the most important causes of the stereotyping of mothers-in-law in society.
   Mothers-in-law, especially those having daughters-in-law, are being discriminated against inspite of their generosity. Mother-in-law gives her son to the daughter-in-law, give her property to her and at the end it is she, who faces the brunt of abuse, and false allegations and defamation.

The mothers-in-law in India face severe abuse and yet these women do not get social support they deserve in conditions like:

1. Severe physical and mental harassment at the hands of their daughters-in-law.
2. Physical harassment can be in form of physical kicking or throwing objects or beating with a belt.
3. Mental harassment includes taunts, comments and not allowing husband to have any relation with mother-in-law.
4. Name calling and usage of vulgar language on her.
5. Throwing her out of her own house and forcibly occupying the house.
6. Daughter-in-law refusing to allow mother-in-law to meet or even speak to her son.
7. Insults, abuses and threats by police to mothers-in-law.
8. Kicking mother-in-law out of house feigning torture and maligning her reputation.
9. Driving mothers-in-law to death.

In addition to launching this forum today, AIMPF also puts forth its demands to the Government:

1. Stop stereotyping mothers-in-law.
2. A change of attitude in the judiciary, the National Commission for Women, etc. to accept complaints from Mothers-in-law with the same spirit with which they accept complaints from daughters-in-law.
3. Stop the de-facto defamation of mothers-in-law and give them their due rights of a dignified and peaceful old age.
4. Stopping abuse of old women in by police and by judiciary.
5. Protect the rights and interest of the Mother-in-law especially when it comes to property matters.
6. Property belonging to mother-in-law should not be given to daughter-in-law under any kind of force, coercion or unwillingness of the mother-in-law.

Well, the idea behind this coming together of misunderstood Mummyjis is the belief that they have been given a rotten deal by society, popular culture and, worse, by a legal system that turns a blind eye to their plight, ever-ready to believe the real villain of the domestic peace: the ‘downtrodden’ daughter-in-law. Their contention is that saas-bahu serials have done more than their bit to promote the myth of the monstrous mother-in-law as a scheming, eyebrow-wiggling harridan who refuses to release the son from her petticoat strings into the sea of marital bliss. Fed up with always being in the firing line for the fireworks in the son’s marriage, these mums are being given a leg up by another distressed band of brothers: the Save India Family Foundation, a non-governmental agency for harassed husbands.