Vat Purnima also called Vat Savitri is a celebration observed by married women in the Western Indian states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and some regions of eastern Uttar Pradesh. On this Purnima or “full moon” a married woman marks her love for her husband by tying a ceremonial thread around a banyan tree. The legend is if women pray to Lord Vishnu and tie a white thread to the trunk of the Banyan by going around it during the Vat Purnima they will be blessed with the same husband in their next 7 lives.

So like every year the women in western India celebrated Vat Purnima in 2018 too. But the Indian Men’s Right Activists had some very different plans altogether for that day. Members of Vaastav Foundation and Patni Pidit Purush Sanghatana tied a thread around a Peepal (Ficus religiosa) tree by moving in an anti-clockwise direction, unlike women and chanting “Don’t give this wife in any of the next births.”

“Do you want to Marry, Oh no no”

“Do you want to be in jail, Oh no no”

“So Stop Fake Cases”

This was to highlight #CrimeAgainstMen that Indian wife’s are misusing the biased laws to harass husband and his family for extorting money & property. In current society, there are women who would readily exchange their husbands with Yamraj (God of death) for money in the form of maintenance, alimony or sole property ownership. We see some lawyers & people who help such unscrupulous women as Yamdoots (Messengers of death).

A member of Vaastav Foundation, said, We as Men’s Rights activists dread to think what will come upon men, if they get same evil wives and go through same harassment over and over again, hence volunteers from Vaastav Foundation on Vat Purnima pray to Goddess Tulsi, consort of Lord Vishnu, by tying a black thread around her to negate the effects of prayers by such evil wives to come back in next lives of men.

The newspapers too appreciated this novel way of highlighting Men’s issue and both National and regional media carried this news.