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Don’t deny the child the love of one parent, they plead.
With the increasing number of divorce cases in India also comes the increasing issues of child custody and visitation rights.
Recently, the City witnessed a protest
demonstration where a few distraught men from men’s rights organisations
demanded gender neutral laws. These men appealed to the judiciary for
co- parenting and shared parenting so that their children could grow up
in a fair environment with the affection of both parents.
Come any vacation or, for that matter,
the time allotted by the court for fathers who do not have custody of
their children, these men allege they are being traumatised and denied
visitation rights by their estranged spouses.
Speaking about his estranged wife’s
reluctance to comply with the High Court’s order to allow him to visit
his five-year-old daughter every alternate week, the convener of Save
India Family Foundation (SIFF), Shah Ali, said, “Initially, I used to
meet my daughter in the car parking at my wife’s residence. After a few
weeks, she started denying me the right of meeting my child. Whenever I
go according to the time allotted by the court, my daughter looks at me
like a stranger. For no fault of hers, my daughter is denied the love of
her parents. This is contempt of court and to file another memorandum
is a time consuming process.”
What seems to be happening in cases
where spouses are not given joint custody is “parental alienation”,
where the custodial parent tries to deny the non-custodial parent the
court-ordered contract with the child.
Advocate Vishwa Janani said, “Most of
the children are comfortable with their mothers. Considering the fact
that even if the mother is working, the court gives custody of the child
to her. However, we cannot deny the father’s affection for the child. I
recall a case where a father was given visitation rights to meet his
12-year-old daughter every fortnight at the court premises. This father
used to eagerly look forward to meet his daughter. Since his daughter
loved math, he would get her a lot of puzzle games and the duo would
spend those two hours happily. This process continued for a couple of
times. After a while, the daughter was reluctant to meet her father,
which made it evident that she was tutored by her mother or mother’s
relatives. In such cases, what happens is the mother gets insecure after
the divorce and does not want to lose her child. She will look for ways
to avoid sending her child to the father.”
However, contempt of court gives the
non-custodial parent the right to seek help. If the visitation order is
violated, the court will decide whether the contempt was intentional or
not, then an order can be filed, said the advocate.
“The fathers should express their love
towards their children from the beginning and not only when the wife
files an application for custody. He should not speak against the mother
or her relatives to the child. Both the parents should realise that
because of their animosity, the child’s mental health can be affected.http://postnoon.com/2013/02/19/fathers-make-a-case-for-visitation-rights/109504
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