It’s Freedom Friday for harassed husbands near Nagpur; “Independence Day” today!!
Nagpur News.
It’s a male’s day altogether…or the Husband’s Independence Day to be
more precise. While the people across the nation might have celebrated
Independence Day on Thursday in solidarity with the traditional
practice, a handful group of men acted otherwise. Feeling leftover in
the series of issues pertaining to individual rights, husbands have
moved a step forward in affirming their self in their own right and
marked Friday as their day of ‘Independence’. The city of Nagpur would
be a part of the one of its kind revolution which is running into its
fifth year.
5
th National Men’s Rights Conference 2013, an event
jointly conducted by a group of organizations fighting for equal rights
to men in Hindu marriages would be held Friday at
Pench Jungle Home Resort near Nagpur.
Arnab Ganguly, a member of one of the participating organization
called INSAAF told Nagpur Today, “We have found Nagpur as our strong
chapter. We have got strong support from over 3500 members here. It is
centrally located and easier to reach. So this year we have chosen this
venue for conducting our event.
He told Nagpur Today, “On Friday we will be conducting the conference while tomorrow we would be debating on marriage laws.”
He informed that last year we could not conduct the event as we had
moved to Delhi to press for the amendments in Hindu Marriage Bill. “Our
previous events were conducted in Shimla, Kolkata and Yercaud in Tamil
Nadu. We are fighting for the men’s rights as the provisions of current
Hindu marriage bill are extremely dangerous and essentially targeting
men in Hindu marriages. It allows wives to acquire 50% of the ancestral
property. Even when the Hindu man is not married, 50% is accorded to his
wife although she has not contributed in the property. This is very
dangerous act which affects Hindu families badly. It will push husbands
to become criminals. We want the government to make amendments but it
did not pay any heed. Even the proposal is awaiting to be tabled in Lok
Sabha or Rajya Sabha. It would be put up by Monday or Tuesday,” he said.
Another organization Child Right Initiative for Shared Parenting
(CRISP) working towards the equality of parenting rights among married
men and women is participating in the movement to push the envelope
further.
Kumar Jahangirdar, founder and president, CRISP said, “We did not
participate in the celebrations Thursday to mark the country’s
Independence Day. We, a group of men who are seeking parenting rights
and joint custody of their child, are meeting in Nagpur on Friday to
demand ‘freedom’ from women-centric laws.
Over 100 men from across the country would participate in today’s
movement. CRISP, which has been fighting for the rights of fathers and
children for more than five years, in partnership with Save Indian
Family, has organised this annual event which would be conducted for
fifth year in a row.
Among the issues slated for discussion during the summit are Marriage
Laws Amendment Bill of 2010. “The law makers have an assumption that
children always live with the mother and she alone is enough to protect
the child’s welfare which is simply unscientific and against nature. It
also violates the spirit of the Indian constitution,” Jahgirdar said.
The bill, he said, also allows the mother to claim paternal ancestral
property and the children’s share of it, which can also lead to likely
misappropriation by step-fathers and step-siblings.
“The government of the people seems to be more interested in women’s
rights than innocent children’s rights, simply because children are not
vote banks, though they represent more than 40 percent of our
population,” he said.
Another member, a software engineer in Nagpur, said, “Men have no
platform to lodge a complaint when they face harassment from their
wives.”
Most of the time, he said, the wives extort money by lodging false
dowry cases and even deny the right of a father to meet his children,
even when he has the court’s consent.
“We urge society and its stakeholders to treat fathers with dignity
and accept the scientific fact that children deserve their father’s
natural love and care as much as their mother,” a statement from CRISP
said.
https://www.nagpurtoday.in/its-freedom-friday-for-harassed-husbands-near-nagpur-independence-day-today/