The first session last July got off to a roiling start when the counselors suggested that the wives be present, too. The men — a mix of Muslims and Hindus — protested vigorously and said they feared the women would be “led down the wrong path,” as one of them described it, or would spill too much of their personal information in discussion sessions, particularly in regard to domestic violence.

“The law has changed so much now that if you slap your wife the moment you step out of the house there’ll be a bunch of cops standing outside your door,” said Yunus Khan. “This is women’s empowerment.”

Khan was full of bravado as he sat recently with other class members at the house where they had spent so much time together in the past year. He made his buddies hoot with laughter.

“Such change has come,” he said. “Earlier, a man would gesture to raise his hand against a woman and the woman would cower. Now a man raises his hand and the woman just stares him in the face. This is not a bad thing. I feel good about it. Women are not going to get beaten now without reason.”

Khan had more to say. “Earlier I used to beat my wife a lot. If she was late in getting my medicines or something, I would beat her. Now I don’t beat her to the point where she has to go to the doctor.”

Khan was far more mild-mannered in a later interview with his family at his home, a one-room dwelling at the edge of a wide field, with a tin roof and two buffalo tied out front. He spoke of his frustrations as an out-of-work tailor who shelved his dreams of becoming a fashion designer after an eye injury.

Now, he devotes his attention to educating his three young children. “We will make our dreams come true through them,” he said.

His wife, Shalima, 25, quietly defended her husband, saying he was not abusive.