Politicians put womenвЂ™s issues at the forefront of their agenda in its wake. The gang rape inflamed IndiaвЂ™s reputation as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women to live in and visit. Yet the law was also criticized for failing to recognize all rape victims regardless of gender. The law also addressed voyeurism, stalking, and acid attacks against women. The incident sparked international headlines and national outrage, prompting the government to pass a stringent anti-rape law giving tougher sentences to rapists and death sentences to repeat offenders. The debate over womenвЂ™s rights reached a tipping point in 2012, when a 23-year-old woman was gang-raped and murdered on a bus in IndiaвЂ™s capital. That is how some men describe her,вЂќ read a 2013 post about Bhardwaj on The Male Factor, a menвЂ™s rights activism blog.

If the men are not fighting for their own rights, why the women will fight for you?вЂќДeepika Bhardwaj, one of the five women in the room, laughed and clapped. вЂњThere are women,вЂќ Sarkar said with a wry smile. вЂњThe real crimes are often underreported,вЂќ she said, adding, вЂњThere is so much patriarchal coercion and violence in India that does not appear as statistics.вЂќДЄt the conference, Sarkar got another applause line for his answer about the number of female MRAs.

Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive WomenвЂ™s Association and one of the countryвЂ™s most vocal feminists, told BuzzFeed News that the reality is even worse than the statistics. More than 300,000 such crimes were reported in 2013, a 26% increase over the previous year. Crimes against women, including rape and вЂњtorture by husband and relatives,вЂќ have continued to rise from 2009 to 2013, according to the most recent official figures. Hindu female goddesses are worshipped and idolized, and women are traditionally upheld as вЂњsymbols of purity.вЂќ At the same time, data shows that women in India face an increasing number of rapes, instances of sexual abuse, and domestic assaults every year. The way women are treated in IndiaвЂ™s culture is complex. IndiaвЂ™s movement is also known for its small but vocal number of prominent activists who are women. Their agenda is to scrap laws that they say target men. and Europe, Indian laws relating to rape, domestic violence, and sexual harassment at the workplace are skewed toward women. MenвЂ™s rights activists lament that unlike gender-neutral laws in the U.S.

Though their rhetoric is similar, Indian MRAs, unlike their American counterparts, function more like a traditional political movement. But in India, menвЂ™s rights activism includes lobbying lawmakers, holding regular meetings and demonstrations, and offering services like legal advice and 24/7 suicide helplines for distressed men. In the U.S., the menвЂ™s rights movement remains fringe and mostly consists of women-bashing on the internet. They had one agenda: to rescue вЂњvulnerable menвЂќ from IndiaвЂ™s вЂњanti-men laws.вЂќ Sarkar, one of India's most prominent menвЂ™s rights activists (MRAs), drew raucous applause from about 180 men - and, notably, five women - who flew from around the country to the GCC Hotel and Club for the Save Indian FamilyвЂ™s annual conference on Aug.

Barkha trehan