CHENNAI: Manikandan, 40, a businessman from Velachery, thought he was a well-respected husband. That is, till business hit a downswing. He says his wife, a teacher, now beats him up every day because he earns less than her.

While the world on Tuesday observed International Men’s Day — there is such a thing, after all, “a global occasion to celebrate the positive contributions and diverse experience (sic) of being male”; ref. facebook.com/international.mens.day — a growing number of men are approaching the Association for Protection of Men with complaints about being put through the dishwasher by their wives.

Chennai men appear to have it worst. The organization has received 5,000 complaints from men in the city this year. Of these cases, 400 have resulted in petitions for divorce. In Mumbai, 2,000 men complained to the organization this year.

The complaints range from ego clashes to sexual torture. A fair number of husbands (30%) can’t get their wives out of their hair, mostly due to ego clashes. Around 20% of the cases were about wives picking up fights with their husbands over living in a joint family.

A similar number of men said their wives were dissatisfied with them in bed and had got involved in extramarital relationships. Around 10% said their wives dragged them to all-women police stations and lodged false complaints against them. As many as 500 of the 5,000 complainants said they were beaten up by their wives.

Some of the complaints that the association receives border on the bizarre. A man from Washermenpet, for example, said he did not want to live with his wife because she forced his brother to have sex with her whenever he was on night duty.

National Crime Records Bureau statistics show that, across the country, a married man commits suicide due to marital or financial pressure every eight minutes. Social activist S Syed Ali says Indian society offers little space for men to show signs of weakness, complain or seek help. “Most men who come to us with complaints have put up with nagging or abusive wives for a long time,” he said.