Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj

Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj (Hindi: दीपिका नारायण भारद्वाज; born December 4, 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, 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]

Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj
दीपिका नारायण भारद्वाज
Born
Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj

(1986-12-04) December 4, 1986
India
NationalityIndian
Occupation
  • Journalist
  • Film-maker
  • Activist
Known forMen's rights activism

Education and career

Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj graduated with a B.Tech from Technological Institute of Textile & Sciences 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
2016 Martyrs of Marriage[28]

References
  1. "The woman who fights for men's equal rights". 20 January 2017. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  2. "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.
  3. Desai, Rahul (25 May 2018). "The Indian venal code". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  4. "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.
  5. "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.
  6. VisualCV.com. "Deepika Bhardwaj - Editorial Consultant at exchange4media - VisualCV". visualcv.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  7. "In pursuit of purpose: Tales of alternative careers from Gurugram". Hindustan Times. 9 September 2018. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  8. "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.
  9. Jha, Aditya Mani. "India's radical meninists come out of the closet". The Caravan. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  10. "India women 'misusing' dowry law". BBC News. 3 July 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  11. "Home Truths: Why we need a strong law against domestic violence". Hindustan Times. 2 December 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  12. 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.
  13. "Why Do Men's Rights Groups Feel the Need to Defame Women Saying #MeToo?". The Wire. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  14. "The Dangerous, False Myth That Women Routinely Misuse Domestic Cruelty Laws". The Wire. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  15. 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.
  16. "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.
  17. "Deepika Bhardwaj, Martyrs of Marriage, and Men's rights in India". sheroes.com. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  18. "Documenting the martyrs of marriage". DNA India. 16 January 2017. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  19. Desai, Rahul (25 May 2018). "The Indian venal code". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  20. "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.
  21. "Knowing man's side of the narrative". DNA India. 16 June 2019. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  22. "Men's rights activism on the rise in India in response to #MeToo". The Independent. 14 May 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  23. 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.
  24. 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.
  25. "Women In The Cause Of Men In Distress". HuffPost India. 26 September 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  26. 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.
  27. 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.
  28. "Martyrs of Marriage". 2016.
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