Father's Day: 'Harassed fathers' demand gender neutral family law
The Child Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP), a
Bangalore-based NGO fighting for shared parenting in case of divorce or
separation, Sunday demanded reforms in family laws -- to make them
gender neutral.
"The anti-father mindset unfortunately persists
in our society. In divorce and separation cases, one of the parents, out
of revenge, deprives the child of the love, affection and care of the
other parent," CRISP founder and president Kumar V. Jahgirdar told IANS.
He
said people like him, who were seeking parenting rights and joint
custody of the child, find they have no relevance on International
Father's Day, which falls Sunday.
"This (single parenting) is one of the worst forms of child abuse," he said.
CRISP,
with more than 2,500 members across the country, said shared parenting
and joint custody of children should be implemented as a rule in divorce
or separation cases.
"We demand a separate union ministry for
children and we demand that the new ministry be de-linked from the
present women and child development ministry. Since both have different
objectives and child rights are being ignored when clubbed with the
women development ministry, such a mechanism would work better," he
said.
The NGO also urged the Supreme Court to define what
constitutes the welfare of a child and lay down guidelines to avoid the
confusion that prevails in family courts.
Delhi-based child
counsellor Ekta Singh, also a CRISP member, said there is need for
making it mandatory that documents pertaining to child welfare like
passport and school admission forms should always have the consent of
both biological parents, in case of separation.
Another member,
Manpreet Bhandari, a software engineer in Bangalore, involved in a
divorce case, said the custodian parent, who intentionally and
consistently violates the court orders of child visitation, should be
declared unfit to be a guardian.
"The custody should be give to the other parent," he said.
CRISP,
with its regional chapters in Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai,
Delhi and Lucknow, has been fighting to set up special courts to deal
with child custody cases.
According to the data available with
CRISP, more than 20,000 divorce cases are pending in family courts in
Bangalore alone. The figure was collected from family courts.
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/harassed-fathers-demand-gender-neutral-family-law/1/280472.html
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