New Delhi, Oct. 3: What do you do when you miss your mother-in-law? Reload and try again.

Mothers-in-law are sick and tired of jokes like this and have decided to take the bull, not the bahu, by its horns: they have formed a national platform to fight for their cause.

The All India Mother-in-Law Protection Forum (AIMPF), said to be the first-ever social forum floated by the much-maligned and lampooned tribe, has vowed to fight against negative stereotyping and push for greater legal protection of their rights.

“Our primary aim is to raise awareness in society about the state of mothers-in-law. It is time we changed the stereotyped thinking — it has to happen immediately. We cannot bear this any more. Enough is enough,” said Neena Dhulia, the co-ordinator of the forum.

According to her, mothers-in-law have always been painted in black. “We are not vamps or villains as saas-bahu serials make us out to be. We are tired of this stereotyping,’’ said Neena, a 54-year-old Calcuttan now settled in Bangalore. She used to run a beauty parlour and is married to a tea exporter.

Formed on September 6, the forum is based in Bangalore and has found members from almost all states.

“The response that we have got in the last one month is enormous. We started off with 50 women and in one month our strength has grown to 10,000,’’ said Neena.

The woes of mothers-in-law do not stop with stereotyping. They are also worried about the “step-motherly’’ attitude of the legal system. “We face severe abuse at the hands of our daughters-in-law and yet we do not get the social or legal support we deserve. The law strongly discriminates against us. Even the National Commission for Women is not sensitive towards us. Are we not women?” asked Neena.

According to her, there have been many cases where daughters-in-law have filed false complaints against their husbands and mothers-in-law just to take away money.

“On television, we are shown as vamps, while in reality we are the victims,’’ said Neena who decided to float the forum after apparently having to suffer severe humiliation from her daughter-in-law.

“She lived with my son only for four months. But within that span, she filed four cases against me and my son, including dowry harassment, even though we did not take any dowry from her family,’’ she said.

Kamini Seshadri, another member and a former college teacher, is of the view that the main problem is that daughters-in-law are programmed to dislike their partner’s mother. “Young girls grow up watching television serials where the mother-in-law is depicted as a vamp. Hence even before she is married, she already has created a villain in her mother-in-law and will be relieved only when she has demolished that villain thoroughly,’’ said the 68-year-old Seshadri.

The forum meets once a week. “Since we don’t have any infrastructure support, we have told our members to meet in local parks to discuss their programmes,’’ said Neena.