Why India Needs a Men’s Commission

In India, we talk a lot about women’s issues. We post. We protest. We build policies and commissions and campaigns. And most of that is necessary. Women have carried injustice for generations. But somewhere in all of this, we quietly decided that men no longer need attention. Or empathy. Or help. Men are supposed to manage. If they don’t, something must be wrong with them. That assumption is costing lives. Men Are Not Okay. We Just Pretend They Are. Most Indian men don’t grow up learning how to talk about what they feel. They grow up learning how to suppress it. Don’t cry. Don’t complain. Don’t look weak. So they adjust. They work harder. They stay silent. They absorb pressure. They tell themselves it’s normal to feel exhausted all the time. And slowly, something inside them collapses. You don’t see it on Instagram. You don’t hear it at weddings or family dinners. But it’s there — in the quiet, in the late nights, in the men who suddenly withdraw. And sometimes, in the men who don’t make it through. The Suicide Numbers Should Have Shocked Us More Than They Did Most suicides in India are by men. Married men, especially. That should have stopped us in our tracks. These aren’t men with nothing to lose. These are men carrying families, expectations, responsibilities. Men who were needed. But instead of asking what’s breaking them, we shrug it off as “pressure” or “stress” — like that explains anything. If this many women were dying, we would call it an emergency. If this many children were dying, we would shut everything down. But because it’s men, we stay quiet. Legal Stress Breaks People, Whether We Admit It or Not This part makes people defensive, but it needs to be said carefully  and honestly. Yes, laws protecting women are important. They exist because abuse exists. That cannot be denied. But misuse also exists. Courts have said it. Judges have said it. Families living through it know it. Some men spend years fighting cases they never imagined would touch them. They lose jobs. Their parents are dragged into courtrooms. Their names are ruined long before anything is proven. What support do they get? None. No counselling. No commission to hear them. No official recognition that trauma doesn’t depend on gender. Justice that refuses to see complexity isn’t justice. It’s damage control. The “Men Have It Easy” Line Is Tired — and Incomplete People say men are privileged. And in some ways, yes. But that’s not the full story. Men are valued for output. For income. For endurance. The moment a man struggles  emotionally, financially, mentally  that value drops fast. There is no grace period for men to fall apart. No patience for healing. No language for vulnerability. You’re either functioning, or you’re failing. That’s not a privilege. That’s pressure. This Isn’t About Competing With Women This isn’t men versus women. Anyone framing it that way isn’t listening. A society where men are emotionally abandoned doesn’t become safer for women. It becomes angrier, more unstable, more broken. Emotionally healthy men don’t threaten equality. They support it. Strong women don’t need silent, suffering men beside them. They need whole humans. Why a Men’s Commission Actually Matters Not for slogans. Not for politics. For acknowledgement. A place that studies why men are dying. A place that listens before it’s too late. A place that tells boys they don’t have to harden to survive. Because right now, men are expected to figure it out alone. And many can’t. Not because they’re weak  but because no one is meant to carry everything without support. The Real Question We Avoid This is the part we don’t ask enough: How many men need to disappear before we admit something is wrong? How many families need to lose fathers, sons, husbands  before we stop pretending silence is strength? Men are not asking to be centred. They’re asking not to be erased. And maybe, just maybe, listening to them doesn’t weaken our fight for equality. Maybe it completes it.