"I am here to teach men what their mothers didn't teach them," declared Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chaudhury at a function in New Delhi on Wednesday. Chaudhury has been at the receiving end of numerous hate mails after taking certain pro-women initiatives.

"Women are the worst sufferers of verbal and physical abuse and they need protection," said Chaudhury. She added that she got the distasteful mails after the recent implementation of the Domestic Violence (Prevention) Act.

Chaudhury was speaking at a function to award the ISO 9001:2000 certificate for Delhi Police's Parivartan, an initiative to combat voilence against women.

The choicest abuses used by men during altercations are based on women and their relationships with them, she said, adding that pro-women initiatives aimed at teaching men what their mothers have not taught them.

"People say pro-women legislations are often misused and abused. Yes, there is a handful of them, but one thing that we should keep in mind is that millions of women also need help," she said.

Many men were "upset" at the implementation of the Domestic Violence (Prevention) Act, claimed Chaudhury. "Gauging by the number of e-mails I have received and their content, I think I need the maximum security in the country," she added in a lighter vein.

"You see many things in Hindi movies. It is okay in movies but not in real life," she said. Men often assume that women have always played second fiddle to them and will continue to do so, she added.

"Can you think of life without women? Now, it is the era of feminisation of the globe and you see women everywhere. They lead the struggle for a decent livelihood," said  Chaudhury.

"It is not that we don't want men. We need their help and they need to understand that women are not mere objects," she said.