Men’s rights NGO “Men Welfare Trust” raises concern over NFHS-5 report.
According to the NGO, 1.18 crore men are missing in NFHS-5 compared to the NFHS-4 report, and it is also raised that the authorities have again ignored domestic violence against men which they had committed to include in the report.
The NGO, after analyzing the NFHS-5 report, they come-up with various observations which they named it “Gender-Scam” to represent the continuing ignorance of the issue of men by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS).
“1.18 Crore Men Missing in India over past 4-years”, Men Welfare Trust
The NGO said, “Just Think Why” over the Questionnaires of NFHS-5.
“look at the Questionnaire of NFHS-5, which was a 96 page one for Women but just 38 page one for Men. So more so, that the questions about being victim of say Domestic Violence were NOT EVEN ASKED from Male gender, when there are various known cases, court observations around Men being victims of Domestic Violence. JUST THINK WHY?”
The NGO said that, while the focus is over the increasing number of female births, but the number of missing males has been completely ignored, which in total comes to a figure of 1.18 crore.
“there are 29 missing males from total population thus bringing the total loss of about 19 (i.e 1.9%) men. Even if we assume the total population to be same as Census 2011 of 62,37,24,248 total males, what we have lost is minimum 1,18,50,760 i.e. minimum 1.18 Crore.”
They have also observed in the report that population of under 15, has fallen from 28.6% in NFHS-4 to 26.5% in NFHS-5, which indicates more older population in the country. The NGO have further link it with missing the number of male.
“This also implies another derivation that the MISSING MEN of INDIA are mostly adults. The derivation also looks true, looking at the increase of suicides amongst men (Adults) as per NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs) data.”
Considering the low rate of boys completing 10 years of schooling, the NGO shown concerns about dropout and child labor.
“This also shows how the school dropout rate of Male gender is much higher than the Female Gender. Most boys are subjected to child labour and the number keeps growing. This is why, we see a lesser growth of 10Y schooling amongst boys/Men. But then, no one will ask this question to the Ministry of Women & CHILD development or Ministry of Education.”
The NGO also raised concern about the high rate of “Diabetes” and “High Blood Pressure” amongst Men and said that “Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will continue to ignore this killer effect on men. “
They also referred their earlier communication with NHFS for the inclusion of “domestic violence with male” in the survey and said that the authorities has ignored the same in the current report.
“we had sent our recommendation to NHFS-4 to include the question about Domestic Violence on Men too, in written reply to us they said, It can’t be included at this stage as data module capturing software already finalized and our suggestion will be considered next time. THOUGH THE SAME WASNOT DONE IN NFHS-5 & the bias continued. Intentionally the same has been avoided to hide the actual data of Domestic Violence on Men.”
The NGO has profoundly raised that the data selection is shouting ‘a biased approach’ of the NFHS which will affect the lives of men and their justice.
“which clearly scream of BIAS in their data selection and data collection will continue to be the basis of Law Making in India because CRIME AGAINST MEN will be ignored forever.”
The NGO also issued few recommendation to the Government of India as:
- Issue a National Helpline for Suicide Prevention only for Men & Boys
- Form National Commission for Men to look into clear issues faced by Male gender
- Separate Child ministry from WCD Ministry and make it as a separate Ministry
- Boys Education, Boys Child Labor, Boys Sexual Assault, all need to get same priority as that for girls
- NEHS must be directed to have a Gender Neutral survey questionnaire, process for data collection [there can always be sections which may not be applicable to the one being surveyed]