Mother-in-laws forum!

fter woeful wives and harassed husbands, it’s the turn of mothers-in-law to form an organisation. More than 500 of them from across the country will come together in Bangalore to launch the All-India Mothers-in-law Protection Forum (AIMPF) on 6th septembr 2009. For some, it will provide a forum to be heard; for others, it is to break the ‘cruel woman’ stereotype that TV soaps have been reinforcing. So varied is the constitution of the forum that it has as members a university teacher from Chennai, a forensic expert from Delhi and a surgeon from Karnataka. “In TV dramas, we are the villains; in real life, we are the victims,” said Nalini (name changed), a homemaker from Chennai, who has joined the AIMPF. The organization is being supported by the Save India Family Foundation (SIFF), a Bangalore-based NGO working for ‘harassed husbands’. So will the AIMPF protect mothers-in-law only from their daughters-in-law and not sons-in-law? “Mostly the women are accused and dragged to court by their daughters-in-law. So we are focussing only on them. The organization is not against anyone; it is for mothers-in-law,” said SIFF public relations officer Virag Dhulia. The forum plans to use its website, www.aimpf.org, to host discussions and debates. “The forum will take up issues, including amendments to inheritance laws and the Domestic Violence Act,” SIFF convenor Manoj David said. Some AIMPF members TOI spoke to had horror tales to narrate. One said that whenever she went inside the bath to shower, her daughter- in-law would turn on the geyser from outside. Supporters of the forum said that though there were several incidents of mothers-in-law torturing their daughters-in-law, there were also many mothers-in-law who silently bore the brunt of domestic violence. “There are several mothers-in-law who are victimised and threatened with Section 498 (a) of the IPC, which speaks of up to three years’ imprisonment for husband’s relatives in dowry harassment cases,” said Virag.