Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj
Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj | |
---|---|
दीपिका नारायण भारद्वाज | |
Born | Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj 4 December 1986 |
Nationality | Indian |
Occupation |
|
Known for | Men's rights activism |
Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj (born 4 December 1986) is an Indian journalist, documentary film-maker and men's rights activist.[1][2] Bhardwaj rose to prominence after producing a documentary—Martyrs of Marriage (MoM), which covered abuse(s) of criminal section 498A (Anti-dowry law) by brides and their families.[3][1][4] She also exposed a conspiracy of alleged victims in the Rohtak sisters viral video controversy by interviewing the witnesses and collecting proof.[5]
Education and career[]
Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj graduated with a B.Tech from Technological Institute of Textile & Sciences (TITS) in 2006. She also did a post-graduate Diploma in television journalism from Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media in 2009.[6]
She worked as Software Engineer at Infosys during 2006 to 2008[6] before leaving the job to pursue film-making.[7] Her first documentary film Gramin Dak Sevak was a student film winner at Jeevika: Asia Livelihood Documentary Festival in 2009.[8] She has been working as editorial consult at Exchange4Media since November 2010.[6]
Activism[]
498-A and Martyrs of Marriage[]
Bhardwaj alleges to have been the victim of a false 498A case, after she and her cousin were charged under the provisions courtesy a police-complaint by her ex-sister-in-law; the issue was resolved in an off-court settlement involving a huge sum of money.[1] This brought her into contacts with Save Indian Family Foundation, and she has since often collaborated with them in demanding an outright repeal of the law or amending to a gender-neutral version.[9][1]
Women right groups and critics however note that the law has been already decriminalized to a large extent by the Supreme Court,[10] and that relevant crime-statistics when coupled with extremely high rates of under-reporting necessitate its presence.[11][12][13] The conviction rates were similar to other laws and given a high charge-sheet rate, did not corroborate with the MRA rhetoric about the law being mostly (ab)used to pursue outright frivolous complaints over trivial issues.[11][14][15]
Bhardwaj's personal episode also went on to serve as the motivations for making a documentary on the locus.[16][17][18] Martyrs of Marriage (2017) narrated first-person tales of various victims who alleged of being at the receiving ends of abuse of 498A and interviewed politicians, judges et al for their take on the issue.[18][16][19]
False sexual harassment allegations[]
Bhardwaj campaigns against false sexual harassment allegations.[20][21] She had supported the #Mentoo movement, a campaign that was started in response of false allegations of the #MeToo movement in India and wrote about how the me-too movement turned men into disposable or collateral damage, sacrificable at the altar of the idea of protecting women.[20][22][23]
In the Rohtak sisters viral video controversy, she interviewed several witnesses and released videos that held the accusers of lying.[5][24][25]
National Commission for Men[]
Bhardwaj campaigns for the establishment of a National Commission for Men in India that would deal with men's issues including domestic violence and sexual assault.[26][27]
Filmography[]
Documentary[]
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
2021 | India's Sons | |
2016 | Martyrs of Marriage[28] | NETFLIX (2018-2020) |
References[]
- ^ a b c d "The woman who fights for men's equal rights". 20 January 2017. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ^ "International Women's Day: Woman activist fights for men abused by women". WION. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
- ^ Desai, Rahul (25 May 2018). "The Indian venal code". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ^ "Haryana woman's film lends voice to harassed married men". Hindustan Times. 21 January 2017. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ^ a b "Rohtak eve-teasing case gets another turn with a fourth video surfacing". DNA India. 12 December 2014. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ^ a b c VisualCV.com. "Deepika Bhardwaj - Editorial Consultant at exchange4media - VisualCV". visualcv.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ^ "In pursuit of purpose: Tales of alternative careers from Gurugram". Hindustan Times. 9 September 2018. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- ^ "International Men's Day: 'I'm a Man Who Faced Domestic Abuse'". The Quint. 19 November 2018. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- ^ Jha, Aditya Mani. "India's radical meninists come out of the closet". The Caravan. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "India women 'misusing' dowry law". BBC News. 3 July 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- ^ a b "Home Truths: Why we need a strong law against domestic violence". Hindustan Times. 2 December 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- ^ Lakshmi, Rama (30 July 2014). "India high court's 'disgruntled wives' ruling tests dowry laws enacted to protect women". The Washington Post. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Why Do Men's Rights Groups Feel the Need to Defame Women Saying #MeToo?". The Wire. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- ^ "The Dangerous, False Myth That Women Routinely Misuse Domestic Cruelty Laws". The Wire. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- ^ Trivedi, Prashant K; Singh, Smriti (2014). "Fallacies of a Supreme Court Judgment: Section 498A and the Dynamics of Acquittals". Economic and Political Weekly. 49 (52): 90–97. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 24481211.
- ^ a b "Martyrs of Marriage - documentary on misuse of IPC sec. 498A". India Today. 9 January 2017. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ^ "Deepika Bhardwaj, Martyrs of Marriage, and Men's rights in India". sheroes.com. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- ^ a b "Documenting the martyrs of marriage". DNA India. 16 January 2017. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ^ Desai, Rahul (25 May 2018). "The Indian venal code". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- ^ a b "Filmmaker Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj: #MenToo is as important as #MeToo - Times of India". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 26 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- ^ "Knowing man's side of the narrative". DNA India. 16 June 2019. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
- ^ "Men's rights activism on the rise in India in response to #MeToo". The Independent. 14 May 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- ^ Pundir, Pallavi (6 June 2019). "#MeToo Has Shaken Up Men's Rights Activism in India, and The Result is #MenToo". Vice. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- ^ IANS (8 December 2014). "Haryana's headline-grabbing sisters: Local heroes or serial beaters?". Business Standard India. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- ^ "Women In The Cause Of Men In Distress". HuffPost India. 26 September 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- ^ Jha, Aditya Mani. "India's radical meninists come out of the closet". The Caravan. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- ^ Masih, Niha (11 November 2018). "The looking glass world of angry men". www.livemint.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- ^ "Martyrs of Marriage". 2016.
External links[]
- People from Gurgaon
- Living people
- 1986 births
- Indian human rights activists
- Indian documentary filmmakers
- Men's rights activists
- Indian activists
- Indian activist journalists
- Indian women activists