By Mohit Dubey
Lucknow, Nov 18 (IANS): In times when women's rights and empowerment are buzz words, Wednesday is going to be quite a day in contrast! Males across India would be celebrating International Men's Day' to mark the pride and respect of men.

To celebrate the free spirit of manhood, and highlight issues related to harassment faced by men, the Save India family (SIF) is celebrating the day in 25 states and 50 cities of India, say the people behind the movement.

"A popular canard is men cannot be violated, and even if it's assumed to be true, it rarely happens. The theory is strongly imbibed in society that the voice of a male victim is rarely heard," Amit Gupta, the man behind the movement, told IANS.

The male role, often maligned in the garb of patriarchy, has left male issues subject to denial, he said.

The sensitisation on female issues has the government's backing but discomfiture of men is left unheard, he rued, stressing the need for more awareness among men to take on the menace of harassment rather that sitting back and sulking.

Organisers in Lucknow cite a United Nations survey as saying that India tops the world chart of men committing suicide. India has around 65 crore men.

"Time has come when this issue should also be highlighted," said Aamir Abbas, a city lawyer.

The organisation has already had a major success in launch of its smartphone and android application - SIF One, which has had more than 5,000 downloads in a few weeks.

As part of the awareness and celebrations on International Men's Day, a dhak rally has already been held in Kolkata, a signature campaign is underway in Bengaluru, a walkathon will take place in Jalandhar, a women-for-brothers rally in Lucknow. Other activities have been planned in Kanpur and Ranchi.

"All that we expect is some respect, mutual understanding and awareness by the society that even men have rights as humans," says the group on the eve of International Men's Day.

Votaries for such issues got a shot in the arm this year, as Bollywood actor Om Puri openly supported the movement.

Puri in a video called for legal remedies to be made available for such men facing marital discord and stressed the urgent need of gender neutral laws.

The veteran actor himself has been locked in a bitter domestic battle with his estranged wife.

Gupta, the convener of the celebrations, told IANS that helpline launched for men-in-distress a few months back have been flooded with complaints and SoS calls for help and intervention.

The Uttar Pradesh helpline has received 3,000 such calls in the past five months, he said.

Agreeing with Om Puri on lack of proper legal remedies, Rohan Srivastava, a self-professed "wife troubled" husband, said: "The essence of bias in lawmakers take a preposterous assumption that male alone are responsible for the fragmenting family values."

He said cruelty by husband on wife "defines the highly misused law" of the Indian penal Code, whereas what may be counted as cruelty by men on women doesn't seems to be other way round if the same is performed by the opposite sex.