Dharna against DV Act Misuse – by Mumbai Brothers

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=248362958529253

Centre homes in on Sec 498A of IPC as men plead for cover against harassment law

Home Ministry writes to Dashrath Devda of Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar Virodhi Sangh, says Law Commission is looking into it

 

Following hundreds of applications from men peeved over the alleged misuse of Section 498A of Indian Penal Code (IPC) meant to protect women, the judicial cell of Union home ministry has issued an advisory to state governments “to take effective measures for prevention of misuse of the legal provision” and also referred the matter to the Law Commission “to study the usage of the provision to suggest amendment, if any”.

Section 498A of the IPC provides protection to married women against harassment from their husbands and in-laws. Under the provision, police can arrest any member of a woman’s in-laws’ family against whom she makes an allegation of harassment.

The Section reads, “Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.”

 

The Union home ministry has conveyed the development in a letter to Ahmedabad-based men’s rights activist Dashrath Devda, who has been fighting for an amendment in Section 498A of the IPC.

Devda heads Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar Virodhi Sangh (All India Federation Against Atrocities by Wives), an organisation based in Ahmedabad.

He had unsuccessfully staged a hunger strike in Delhi against the alleged pro-women laws, including Section 498A of the IPC.

To press his demand, he had also filed a public interest litigation in the HC, which dismissed the plea and fined him while calling his petition frivolous.

Subsequently, Devda submitted a memorandum in this regard to the authorities in Delhi. As a reply, he has now received the letter from the judicial cell of the Union home ministry.

The letter reads, “An advisory has been issued to be state governments by this Ministry to take effective measures for prevention of misuse of Section 498A of the IPC. The matter has also been referred to Law Commission of India to study the usage of Section 498A of IPC and suggest amendments, if any, to the provision.”

Sources in the Union home ministry said they receive a number of applications with reference to the alleged misuse of section 498A of IPC. On the basis of 200-250 such applications, they had referred the matter to the Law Commission in 2009, they said, adding that in 2010, the ministry again referred the matter to the Law Commission for a comprehensive study of the grievances and to suggest amendment, if any. Subsequently, the Law Commission had demanded related data from the state governments.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/centre-homes-in-on-sec-498a-of-ipc-as-men-plead-for-cover-against-harassment-law/834552/0

 

Women asked to keep watch on hubbies to fight graft

PONDA: To fight the menace of corruption in the state and country, Marathi novelist Madhavi Desai has appealed to women to keep a close watch on their husbands and question them about the gifts received by them or the source of money used to purchase expensive things on special occasions. This will definitely go a long way in curbing corruption to a good extent, she said.

Desai was addressing a large meeting convened in solidarity with veteran social activist Anna Hazare in his fight against corruption. The public meeting organized on Thursday by India against corruption (IAC) at Kranti Maidan in Ponda was attended by over a thousand people despite rains.

Alleging that Goan politicians have 49,000 crore in Swiss banks, senior ST leader Babuso Gaonkar said that the money belongs to 14 lakh Goans. “If calculated, it amounts to 3.5 lakh of each Goan citizen,” Gaonkar said.

Samsher Khan, a lecturer in GVM’s higher secondary school, Ponda, said that India’s GDP (gross domestic product) is 70 lakh crore. However, quoting a statement of late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, he said only 10% of the GDP is being used for the development of the country and the remaining goes to feed the demon of corruption. Earlier, in the morning, about 3,000 students from different higher secondary schools and colleges took out a rally across Ponda town.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Women-asked-to-keep-watch-on-hubbies-to-fight-graft/articleshow/9654197.cms

Second wife can also sue husband for bigamy, says SC

Promiscuous men beware! Not just your legally-wedded wife but even the second woman with whom you solemnise a marriage can land you in jail for bigamy. The Supreme Court has ruled that a woman with whom second marriage is performed is also entitled to drag the man to court under section

494 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which makes bigamy a criminal offence, punishable with a jail term of maximum seven years.

“To hold that a woman with whom second marriage is performed is not entitled to maintain a complaint under section 494 IPC though she suffers legal injuries would be height of perversity,” a bench headed by justice JM Panchal said while ordering the prosecution of an Andhra Pradesh policeman for bigamy.

Rejecting the policeman’s contention that complaint of dowry harassment against him by the second woman was not maintainable because she was not his legally wedded wife in view of subsistence of his first marriage, the bench restored the charges under section 498A of IPC. The section 494 of IPC is a gender neutral, but, generally it is men who are at the receiving end of this provision and it is the first wife who as an “aggrieved person” invokes the anti-bigamy law.

Maintaining that section 494 is intended to achieve “laudable object of monogamy,” the bench said it “does not restrict right of filing complaint to the first wife and there is no reason to read the said section in a restricted manner…”

Senior advocate Geeta Luthra said: “The judgement explains the meaning of the phrase aggrieved person and also gives an alternative to many women who cannot take benefit of section 498A because of them being victims of an illegal/second marriage…”

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Second-wife-can-also-sue-husband-for-bigamy-says-SC/Article1-726367.aspx

‘Harassed’ Kerala men unite against women’s panel

‘Harassed’ Kerala men unite against women’s panel

T.K. Devasia

25 July 2011

TRIVANDRUM — Harassed husbands in Kerala have urged the government to scrap the Women’s Commission and establish a Family Commission in its place to ensure fair hearing to men who are tortured by women.

 

The demand was made at seminar organised by ‘Janamithram Janakeeya Neethi Vedi’ (JJNV), an association of harassed husbands, in the state’s northern city of Calicut on Sunday to formulate strategies to protect the men’s rights.

The speakers at the seminar said that the Women’s Commission was being misused by women for various purposes, including extraction money from men. It seldom tries to verify the genuineness of complaints filed by women.

The speakers also came down heavily on the family courts, saying that it was biased against men. They listen only to the women in most cases. This, the speakers, said was leading to wrong convictions.

They said a large number of advocates were taking advantage of this and dragging men to the court and subsequently pushing them into jails in connivance with their women clients. The seminar demanded removal of advocates from the family courts.

Abdul Nasser, state secretary of Vedi, told Khaleej Times that the family courts and the Women’s Commission were denying justice to men mostly in cases related to dowry. They are blindly supporting the women, who take advantage of the Section 498A of the Anti Dowry Act.

In fact, the Vedi was formed by Janamithram Ibrahim, a retired teacher who was jailed, for his failure to pay the alimony ordered by the court under the Section. He said he had seen many like him in the Kannur jail, where he spent 16 months.

Ibrahim said most of them were ordered to pay the alimony they could not afford. The judgements in these cases were based on wrong statements given by women regarding the income of the opposite party.

The Vedi is in the process of filing a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court against those who torment men by misusing laws intended to protecting women. He said a person, thus convicted by the family court committed suicide in Kannur Central jail in 2008.

Ibrahim said the injustice meted out by the court had turned many mental patients. There are many people who have lost their mental stability and are suffering from depression, he said adding that the courts were also blind to mother-in-laws who are framed and dragged into a case. Several such women are members of the Vedi. A 96-year-old woman, who was pushed out of her house by her daughter-in-law after slapping a case against her, also attended Sunday’s seminar.

The Vedi has been holding conferences of abused men all over Kerala since it came into being last year to mobilise public opinion against the denial of justice to men. The seminar at Calicut was organised as part of the northern region conference.

They have also decided to launch an agitation against the misuse of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act by individuals and women’s organisations. The agitation will target those women who have filed bogus cases against men and their lawyers.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2011/July/international_July1214.xml&section=international&col=

CRISP Press coverage of Father’s Day – 2011

1. Right to fatherhood

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/life/article2110042.ece?homepage=true

Business Line Fathering a movement: Members of CRISP at a Father’s Day rally in Bangalore to demand enforcement of child-visit rights for single dads. – Photo: K. Gopinathan

 

On Father’s Day (June 19), like every year, a group of men will gather in Bangalore to draw attention to the plight of single dads who are denied access to their children and the joys of shared parenting.

 

Desperate emails and phone calls from fathers who have been denied access to their children pour in each week for Kumar Jahgirdar, president of Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP). He replies to all the mails promptly, but with Father’s Day (June 19) just round the corner, his plate is full. He is making plans, like every year, to organise a rally in Bangalore to highlight the grievances of single fathers, some of whom haven’t seen their children in years.

Jahgirdar says Indian courts hearing child custody cases tend to be biased towards the mothers even when they may not be the more suitable parent. He says the adversarial approach to divorce law turns children into the spoils of marriage and there is too much focus on a father’s responsibility to make alimony payments and not enough on his right to visit his child.

Bangalore-based NGO CRISP was founded around five years ago as a forum to support and fight on behalf of single dads. The organisation wants divorced/ separated parents to be granted equal access to their children, and punishment for those who misuse the anti-dowry law (Section 498A IPC) and the Domestic Violence Act to deny fathers access to their kids.

Jahgirdar shares several heartrending tales of hapless fathers. He mentions a dad for whom the only contact with his daughter is watching her from behind the school gates. Then there is Sunil*, who talks of the “emotional desolation” after his wife moved out of the family home with their two children, aged five and two, in February last year.

“It was really dreadful. The worst thing, practically, was finding the house so quiet because it was always so full of laughter and rampaging and stampeding,” he adds. “There were many times when I felt suicidal.”

“It’s important to emphasise that family breakdown is a nightmare for everyone. Mothers suffer, and so do grandparents and even close friends. Most crucially, the children suffer. Not only are they deprived of having two parents living in the same house, quite often they will lose a parent altogether,” says Jahgirdar. This, in effect, amounts to, as singer Bob Geldof once put it, “a form of child abuse”.

Many fathers lose all contact with their children when they are separated from their partner or after divorce. “This is often put down to the indifference of the father, but it’s actually about the barriers that are put in the way of contact. They are erected by the courts or the mother, or both,” says Vijay*, a SIFF (Save Indian Family Foundation) activist.

Vijay last met his two children, a boy aged 12 and a girl aged six, nearly 18 months ago. His wife had suddenly decided two years ago that she didn’t want him in her life, but neither did she want a divorce. She threw him out of his own home, along with his belongings, and threatened him saying he could do nothing as the laws of the land favoured women where marital disputes were concerned. A despondent Vijay, who has all along been supporting his wife and children financially, sought a divorce. His wife responded by invoking the draconian Domestic Violence Act against him and his father. As the legal tangles take time to straighten out, Vijay’s children have been unfairly deprived of their father’s company.

CRISP has more than 1,000 members across India and is adding more each day. It holds weekly meetings, and has established several centres in the country to counsel fathers, provide support and educate them on the laws of the land. Its Web site, www.crisp-india.org, receives hundreds of visitors who access the information posted there. Jahgirdar and the other members of CRISP are determined to carry on, with greater vigour than ever, the struggle to ensure a fair deal for dads and guarantee that no child is unfairly deprived of his/ her father’s love.

CRISP, which is part of the Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), favours educating couples going through a divorce on the benefits of shared parenting, and setting up special courts to speedily deal with child custody cases in a just and sensitive manner.

Its demands include

settling all child custody cases within three months from the date of filing;

an end to the practice of interviewing very young children, especially when they haven’t had adequate access to the non-custodial parent;

punishment for parents who don’t comply with court orders;

a separate ministry for children that is delinked from the present Ministry for Women and Child Development;

setting up evening courts so that litigants are not forced to take leave from work to attend the proceedings;

employing mediators who have been trained by child psychologists.

* Names changed to protect identity.

2. Rally to mark Father’s Day

http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/17/stories/2011061764080400.htm

 

Rally to mark Father’s Day

 

Staff Reporter 

 

 

 

BANGALORE: To mark Father’s Day, non-governmental organisation Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP), is organising a rally on Saturday between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Town Hall on J.C. Road.

Speaking to presspersons here on Wednesday, secretary of CRISP Lokesh Reddy M.N. said a large number of fathers who are facing trauma owing to alienation of their children caused by separation and divorce will participate in the rally. On the occasion, the members will demand that the government revise laws related to family and highlight the grievances of fathers who are deprived of access to their children.

Impact on children

Avinash Kumar, child rights activist, said CRISP is concerned with the growing custody battles between parents and the ill-effects on children due to parents’ separation.

Mr. Kumar said, “We speak for the rights of the innocent children who are deprived of love and affection from their natural parent. Shared parenting is the only alternative arrangement to spend quality time with children.”

3. New-age nanny dads – Tribune 

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110619/spectrum/main1.htm

Daddies denied
Nivedita Choudhuri

ALL too often, fathers get the fuzzy end of the lollipop — slaves to their jobs, chauffeurs to their children and incidental to their wives. This Father’s Day, fathers and many father figures will be honoured. Many men will get gifts, ranging from pens to mugs that say ‘World’s Greatest Father’ or ‘I Love My Dad’. However, the day will also bring pain and sorrow to many households, which have divorced or separated fathers.But there is a ray of hope for such fathers. These men, some of whom are often denied access to their children for months and years, can now turn to the Children’s Rights Initiatives for Shared Parenting (CRISP), which takes up cudgels on behalf of harassed fathers. CRISP is part of the Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), an organisation that primarily supports men trapped in false cases lodged against them by their wives.Bangalore-based NGO CRISP was formed around five years ago, when some citizens came together to fight for the rights of single fathers and ensure that children did not lose touch with their dads if their parents divorced. “The courts are so geared to the mother that the father gets no justice and that means the kids don’t get justice, too. So many people have lost contact with their children that it was inevitable something like CRISP would emerge,” says Kumar Jahgirdar, one of the founders of CRISP.CRISP activists receive calls from hundreds of aggrieved fathers each year, many of whom are ‘falsely’ charged by their wives with taking dowry. There are others who are unjustly booked under the draconian Domestic Violence Act. Their lives are in tatters when they approach CRISP. On the one hand, there are the mounting court cases and, on the other hand, there is total alienation from their children. The insensitive Indian courts take ages to hand out verdicts. The hapless fathers have no choice but to put their lives on hold and pray for divine intervention.Anil (name changed to protect identity), a SIFF activist, has had to put his life on hold for the past few years ever since his wife told him she wanted to have nothing to do with him but that she was not willing to go in for a divorce either. After exhausting all means for a reconciliation, Anil suggested to his wife that they divorce. However, she responded by filing a false case under the Domestic Violence Act against Anil and his father. `A0Anil has not stopped paying for her upkeep or for their two children even for a single day. Unfortunately, he has not met his children for the past two years or set foot in his own house, which his estranged wife is currently occupying with their children after throwing him out along with his belongings.“It comes down to the simple fact that we face a Herculean struggle. The politicians are not dealing with this with the degree of urgency this matter deserves. Fathers are forced to support children`A0even when mothers are not being forced to allow those fathers access,” says Jahgirdar. He wants fathers and grandparents to be given a legal right to see their children and grandchildren.According to the members of CRISP, couples contemplating divorce should be counselled on the benefits of shared parenting. This will eliminate unnecessary child custody battles, stress caused to both the parents and the children and save the precious time of the already overburdened courts. `A0Jahgirdar wants the law changed so that equal parenting is presumed, whereas at present the pendulum swings in favour of the mother. “All we want is equality between the genders, equality of treatment,” he adds.

4Estranged fathers demand better access to their children

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/article2119375.ece

Estranged fathers demand better access to their children

Share  ·   print  ·  T+  

 

Demanding a change in the existing legal provisions which control a divorced father’s engagements with his children and to increase the frequency and quality of these interactions, Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP) began a four-day hunger strike at Dharna Chowk, Indira Park on Sunday.

The NGO aims to highlight the plight of estranged fathers in their effort to reconnect with their children. It also advocates the removal of the gender bias in the divorce laws to bring back qualitative parental engagement with their children.

Shah Ali, a CRISP activist participating in the hunger strike, said that in any divorce, children are the worst sufferers as they harbour the feelings of guilt, and the effects of parental alienation and resulting trauma can be long-lasting.

He says that only shared parenting can heal these children’s emotional scars.

5. Are dads dispensable commodities?

http://www.hindu.com/op/2011/06/19/stories/2011061950071100.htm

 

Are dads dispensable commodities?

 

 

 

RAGHURAM SHANMUGASUNDARAM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All alone, or in twos/The ones who really love you/Walk up and down outside the wall/Some hand in hand/Some gathering together in bands/The bleeding hearts and the artists/Make their stand/And when they’ve given you their all/Some stagger and fall after all it’s not easy/Banging your heart against the Wall

 

— Roger Waters from

 

“The Wall”

 

It is said that simple questions are the most difficult to answer. As a matter of fact, it’s impossible to answer if that “simple” question is asked by a child. My five-year-old son the other day whispered into my ears, “Daddy, can we go to Daddy House?” For most, it might seem to be the simplest question with a one-word answer. But my response was one of hollowed look and silence. Welcome to the world of Divorced fathers – the Throwaway Dads!

 

Today, many Indian families are plagued by marital discord and divorce — once a social stigma but now an unremarkable passing event. What was once considered the very defining elements of family life are now subject to re-examination. Gender roles within the family are no longer enforced.

 

A successful working woman is seen as a role model in society. But the concept of childhood and parenthood has remained stable and is still considered the foundation and pillars of our culture. Yet, in the murky events of divorce and child custody, there is an undeniable conflict between biological, legal and social conceptions of parenthood.

 

In a typical divorce and child custody case, the father ends up as a non-custodial parent (save for a handful of instances over the past few decades). Ostracised from active parenting, his role is now limited to being a “paying visitor” for a few hours a month. These few hours cannot be a substitute for an involved parental relationship. What sin has the child done to be cut off from his father, who till the other day was his playmate, coach and guard? Overnight, there is no recipient for one of the most said words of the child — “Daddy.”

 

The principle used in child custody cases is the doctrine of “best interest of the child.” In theory, the law is gender neutral — it neither says that the mother has to be the custodial parent nor does it mandate that only one of the parents can have custody. Therefore, in theory, both mother and father can be joint custodians. So, why this madness? The answer lies in its interpretation and adoption — an unwritten method of determining the best interests by selection. Here a warm thought of motherhood tilts the balance.

 

The overwhelming feeling towards the father and his role seem applicable only in reel-life. I’ve seen many a woman shed tears when the father and son have their last breakfast together in the movie, Kramer vs Kramer. Even for an animation movie Finding Nemo, tears are shed for Marlin, the daddy fish. But when it comes to real life, it is all swept clean from memory — convenience and egos take precedence over conscience and welfare.

 

Granted, the mother’s role is indispensable in the child’s life. The same applies to the father’s role too — certain roles can be fulfilled only by a father. Studies done on single-parent children show that the loss of paternal care and stability is the cause of most of their social aberrations.

 

Divorce being a new-age phenomenon in India, it is time we learnt from the lost generation of those countries and took some preventive measures. The law should broaden the idea of parenthood and dilute the traditional interpretations and beliefs. First and foremost should be the shift from the “winner takes all” custody framework to a presumptive shared parenting framework. Joint and equal custody must be the interpretation of the best interest of the child principle.

 

Australia, France, Denmark, Belgium and some States in the U.S. have already brought in legislative changes towards shared parenting. Results of studies conducted on shared parenting have been positive — it showed more parental involvement, a higher happiness index in child and reduced inter-parental conflicts.

 

For a child, every day should be Mother’s day and Father’s day — separation of mom and dad should not make any difference. Await the day.

 

“From the first moments of life, the bond forged between a father and a child is sacred. Whether patching scraped knees or helping with homework, dads bring joy, instil values, and introduce wonders into the lives of their children. Fathers are our first teachers and coaches, mentors and role models. When fathers are not present, their children and families cope with an absence government cannot fill.” — Barack Obama in his Father’s Day proclamation of 2010.

 

(The writer is Member, Children’s Right Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP). His email is: shanraghuram@gmail.com)

6. Papas out in pursuit of happiness

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQkcvMjAxMS8wNi8xOSNBcjAwNDAz&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom

Publication: The Times Of India Bangalore;

Date: Jun 19, 2011;

Section: Times City;

Page: 4

FATHER’S DAY

Papas out in pursuit of happiness

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: For every daddy, the little one is an apple of his eye. Distanced from their heart-throbs on the eve of Fathers’ Day it was only natural for them to vent out their anguish. Separated from their

wives, woebegone fathers came together under the umbrella of Crisp (Children’s Rights Initiative For Shared Parenting), an NGO that focuses on furthering rights of children to remain connected withboth parents,even after a couple’sseparation.

    Daddy dears demanded family law reforms, immediate halt to abuse of Section 498A(dowry harassment) and more accesstotheir kids.

    “ Conflict between parents will reduce and the mental and emotional health of children will improve when divorcing parents can be assured of equal and meaningful contact. They should also stop wasting precious time in the court,” said Kumar Jaghirdar, president Crisp. Stressing on equal rights for both parents, Jaghirdar observed that in divorce and separation cases, often one of the parents deprive the child of the love and care of theother.

    “This is one of the worst forms of child abuse, as the kidsuffersfrompsychological damage resulting in disorders like parental alienation syndrome and reactive associative disorders that warp a child’s development,” said Kesava Vishwanathan, a design engineer who’s a single parent.

 

 

 https://picasaweb.google.com/116802290314274346291/Jun182011?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ7q0tHByOf4XQ&feat=email#

https://picasaweb.google.com/117609073144184200949/CRISPFatherSDay18062011DrawingCompetition?authkey=Gv1sRgCIyV856U-vXXHg&feat=directlink#

For them, Father’s Day has no relevance

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/169987/for-them-fathers-day-has.html

<!–

–>

For them, Father’s Day has no relevance

Shimla, June 19 (IANS)

Sunday, June 19, 2011

For them, International Father’s Day has no relevance. They are a group of ”harassed” men who have been denied their parenting rights. These are divorced fathers who have been demanding equal access to their children.

These fathers are keen to take care of their children as a practice and to make this law mandatory through legislation.”This Father’s Day (June 19), we are seeking parenting rights and joint custody of children in case of divorce or separation,” Shimla-based software engineer Atul Sood (name changed) told IANS.Sood, who has been facing a divorce case, said: “Despite a court order, my wife and her family is not allowing me to meet my kid. For more than three years, I have not met her and even not seen her.”Added Ramandeep Bajwa of Chandigarh, “In spite of the court giving me the permission to meet my child, the mother tutors the kid not to speak to me when the meeting takes place. So when I go to meet my child, she doesn’t speak to me at all.”"It’s really shameful that I have fathered the child but I can’t speak to her,” he added. Bangalore-based NGO Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (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.”On Father’s Day, we demand the basic rights of children to access both biological parents. For this, there is a need for implementing shared parenting and joint custody as a rule in separation and divorce cases,” CRISP Founder and President Kumar V. Jahgirdar told IANS on phone from Bangalore.”It’s not fair on the part of the court to interview the child for selecting a parent (in divorce case). There should be no interview of the child up to the age of 12,” 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. “We are demanding special courts to deal with child custody cases and address the problems faced by the parents who have been deprived of the joint custody,” said Jahgirdar, who is fighting for shared parenting of his daughter with his ex-wife. “Moreover, all child custody cases should be settled within three months of application in the family courts,” he added.Bajwa said the courts have a more favourable approach towards mothers. “Indian matrimonial and child custody laws are biased against men,” he added. CRISP is demanding punishment for people who misuse the Indian Penal Code as a tool to deprive the father and his family members of access to their children. S.P. Sidhu, a leading lawyer based in Chandigarh, said: “As per law, a child below the age of five always remains in the custody of the mother and the father doesn’t have the right to bring him or her up.”"Even if the child is more than five years old, the court generally favours the mother for custody. However, only in exceptional cases the court gives custody to a father, that too after he convinces the court that the mother is not taking care of the child well,” he said. Delhi-based child counsellor Ekta Singh said: “For a child, both the parents are equally important and isolation of one of them in most cases leads to mental distress and trauma in the child.” According to CRISP, during 2008, 9,000 divorce cases were filed in Delhi, 7,500 in Mumbai and 5,000 in Bangalore. The figures were collected from family courts in the three cities

 

Child abduction by parents among Indian diaspora raises concern

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-06-19/news/29676962_1_civil-aspects-international-child-abduction-indian-origin

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-06-19/news/29676962_1_civil-aspects-international-child-abduction-indian-origin/2

NEW DELHI: Increasing number of child abductions by parents among the Indian diaspora has become a cause of concern as India is yet to join the international convention on the issue, a British minister has said.

“The cases where a parent abducts their child and takes it away to India are problematic because India does not have laws to deal with parental child abduction,” British Minister for Equalities Lynne Featherstone said here.

The minister urged the Indian governmentto accede to the UN Conventionon the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

The British minister was here on a three-day visit to India June 15-17 to seek greater collaboration between the two countries on the issue of violence against women and gender equality issues.

According to Featherstone, the UK governmentreceives at least one complaint per month of alleged abduction of a child by a parent of Indian origin. There are about eight such cases currently being investigated, the minister said.

The children were abducted by one of the parents and brought to India in order to gain the advantage in matrimonial and child custody disputes.

Child abduction cases by parents are high in countries which have a large population of people of Indian origin such as the UK, the USand Canada.

About 70 children were abducted by parents of Indian origin in the UK in the past eight years, according to a report.

The US State Department’s Office of Child Issues, which helps in child abduction cases, is currently working on more than 100 cases of children taken to India without the consent of the parent left behind. The State Departmenthas said that there are few remedies if a child is abducted to India.

There are more unresolved cases of parental child abduction from the US to India than any other country with the exception of Mexico.

About 85 countries have ratified the 1980 Hague Convention on Parental Child Abduction. Under the convention, member countries undertake to return children abducted by a parent to their homes under the jurisdiction of the courts in the home country.

Parental child abduction has become one of the many issues that have been added to the agenda for inter-governmental discussions with visiting delegations from the US, Britainand Canada.

Several NGOs and activists in India and abroad have urged the government to accede to the Hague Convention.

On the occasion of Father’s Day (June 20), a Bangalore-based non-governmental organisation, Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP), has demanded that India ratify the Hague Convention and reform family law in India.

California-based Rakshak Foundationhas also appealed to the union government to safeguard children’s rights and make parental abduction a cognizable, non-bailable crime.

Abduction of a child by one parent violates the child’s right to live in the security of the familiar home and prevents access to both parents. More and more child custody and abduction cases are landing in Indian courts relating to foreign citizens as well as non resident Indians (NRIs).

The Supreme Courthas ruled recently that Indian courts have jurisprudence on child custody cases even if the child is a citizen of a foreign country. The courts apply the principle of best interest of the child, taking a foreign court decree as only one of the factors for deciding on the custodial dispute.

There have been occasions when the father had taken away the child from the country of residence, gone to India and left the child with his grandparents while he flew to work in a third country.

At other times, it is the woman who took the child on the pretext of visiting India.

Many abducted children are told that the other parent is dead or has gone away. Often one parent tries to poison the child’s mind to the other parent, which often causes psychological and emotional problems for the child.

“Children in such cases are voiceless victims and their right to be connected to both biological parents needs to be protected,” according to the Rakshak Foundation.

Often child custody cases lead to the child being deprived of the love, affection and care of one parent.

” Jointcustody and shared parenting are the best solutions for normal development of the child,” the foundation said.

 http://aimwa.in/fathers-day-2011

 https://picasaweb.google.com/116802290314274346291/Jun182011?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ7q0tHByOf4XQ&feat=email

 

Bangalore’s ‘deprived dads’ to rally for parenting rights

http://newshopper.sulekha.com/bangalore-s-deprived-dads-to-rally-for-parenting-rights_news_1081176.htm

Bangalore’s ‘deprived dads’ to rally for parenting rights

posted 2 yrs ago – by sulekha news | 60 Views | View Source: Maitreyee Boruah

• Bookmark this page
• Send to Friend
• Print this page
• Post Comments
• Subscribe to Alerts

Bangalore, June 19 (IANS) Many Bangalore men who are separated from their wives but pine for their children are set to mark Father’s Day by taking out a rally here. Kids should get the love of both parents, they stress, even as divorce cases are going up in India.

Along with others, Saturday’s rally will see these men asserting their right to be in touch with their children. June 21 is Father’s Day.

 

It is the brainchild of Children’s Rights Initiative For Shared Parenting (CRISP), a city-based NGO, fighting for shared parenting rights, in association with Save the Indian Family Foundation (SIFF).

 

‘Not every child is lucky enough to have the love and care of both father and mother, even when both the parents are alive during their growing up days. Due to a rise in divorce cases in the country, most children of separated parents are deprived of both their parents’ affection,’ Kumar Jahgirdar, president of CRISP, told IANS.

 

‘On the occasion of Father’s Day, CRISP members will have a rally in the morning near Mahatma Gandhi statue at M.G. Road to create awareness on the importance of the father in the life of a child,’ added Kumar.

 

He himself has been battling for the custody of his daughter for almost a decade.

 

Formed in May 2008 in Bangalore, CRISP today has 1,000 members across the country. On Saturday, around 500 members of CRISP are likely to take part in the rally.

 

Explaining on CRISP’s work, the president said, the organisation has fathers, mothers and grandparents as its members.

 

‘I want to clarify one thing. The members are not only fathers who are fighting for the rights of their children’s custody. We have both fathers, mothers and grandparents, who are fighting for justice and equality in child custody laws of our country and who believe in shared parenting when the parents are either separated or divorced,’ said Kumar.

 

‘The idea of our organisation is to give every child their right to be raised equally by both parents, to get an equal amount of love and affection from both parents,’ added Kumar.

 

According to the figures available with CRISP, around 13,000 cases of divorce are pending in various family courts in Bangalore.

 

‘In the process of parents getting divorced, it is ultimately the children who suffer the most. Thus we want equal rights for both the parents over their children,’ said Lokesh Reddy, a member of CRISP.

 

‘We want a change in Indian family law which in most cases is tilted towards the mother when it comes to a child’s custody,’ he added.

 

According to CRISP, parents contemplating divorce should be given mandatory counselling on ‘shared parenting’ and its benefits by a panel of experts supervised by the family courts.

 

‘This will eliminate unnecessary child custody battles, stress to the parents and children and waste of the precious time of the courts,’ said Jayant, another member of CRISP.

 

‘It is always better to have the care and love of both mother and father while growing up. I too support the concept of shared parenting. Differences between parents should not affect children in their growing up days,’ said Sharada Patil, a Bangalore-based teacher.

 

(Maitreyee Boruah can be contacted at m.boruah@ians.in)

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=116802290314274346291&target=ALBUM&id=5619527006554349025&authkey=Gv1sRgCJ7q0tHByOf4XQ&feat=email

 

Dowry case: Plea of 85-yr-old rejected

May 13, 2011, 09.56pm IST

NEW DELHI: A trial court has rejected the plea of an 85-year-old woman that she is too old to torture her daughter-in-law for dowry, and gave the go ahead to the police to prosecute her.

Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja dismissed the woman’s plea that it was not possible to commit the offence at her age saying that detailed scrutiny of evidence is not required at the stage of framing of charges to begin the trial. The court also allowed the prosecution of the accused’s daughter for harassing and torturing her daughter-in-law.

After perusing allegations and preliminary evidence against the two women, the judge said, “It is a well settled law that at the stage of consideration of charge, the court has to prima facie consider the material on record.”

85-year-old Bishni Devi and her daughter Munesh (36) had moved the court challenging the framing of charges against them under section 498A IPC by a magisterial court on the complaint of 35-year-old Kamlesh, who was married to Bishni Devi’s son.

“A bare perusal of the record and submissions reveal that complainant Kamlesh made various allegations of beating, harassment at the hands of petitioners Bishni Devi and Munesh. She has also alleged that her dowry articles and jewellery have been taken away by Bishni Devi,” the court said.

The complainant was married to Bishni Devi’s son in 2000. She alleged that Bishni Devi used to make dowry demands, beat her up and instigate her husband against her. She told the court that her sister-in-law Munesh also used to taunt her for bringing insufficient dowry. Her jewellery and dowry articles have been taken away by her husband and his relatives, and she was forcibly thrown out from the matrimonial home after having been beaten up, the complainant told the court.

In her appeal to the sessions court, Bishni Devi said the trial court had failed to consider that at her age it was not possible for her to harass her daughter-in-law for dowry. Her daughter and co-accused Munesh also pleaded innocence. But the sessions court upheld the magisterial court’s order and directed both of them to appear before it on June 4 to face trial.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-05-13/delhi/29539549_1_dowry-case-insufficient-dowry-dowry-demands

Marital Terrorism 498A

Marital Terrorism 498A `Marital Terrorism’ in the form of section 498A of the IPC is on the rise, as this particular law is absolutely non-bailable. While Rajya Sabha has asked for citizens’ views and suggestions till December 31 regarding section 498A, a family from Panvel is currently suffering as a 70-year-old man is now behind bars allegedly due to a frivolous complaint by daughter-in-law. Many lawyers and NGOs state that 498A is often used as a blackmail tool to harass the in-laws.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Marital-Terrorism-498A/speednewsbytopic/keyid-501601.cms

Men’s forum demands national commission for them – Hindu Coverage

http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/17/stories/2010081754400500.htm

Men’s forum demands national commission for them

R. Ilangovan

‘Many women are abusing laws for nefarious gains’

 

Protect us:A poster on Section 498A of IPC that was displayed at the national conference of All India Men’s Welfare Association at Yercaud.

SALEM: A national-level coordination forum of men has called for protection from wives and live-in partners whom they charged with exploiting women’s welfare legislation that arm them with ‘unbridled’ power to act against men.

The men, who claim to be ‘victims’ of such legislation from all over the country, spent three days in a resort at the hill station of Yercaud near here to deliberate on how to protect themselves and their kith and kin from harassment and to kick-start a campaign to impress upon policy-makers to think about their plight before enacting such lop-sided laws.

The forum said that many women were abusing these laws for nefarious gains by filing charges against their husbands and partners.

The provisions in these statutes, they called, were ‘anti-men’ leading to suicide of nearly 60,000 men as against 32,000 women annually.

Between 2004 and 2008, seven lakh men and family members were arrested including 500 minors and 5000 aged people, they claimed.

They pointed out that, for instance, laws such as the Dowry Prohibition Act, Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, Sec 125 of Cr. PC and above all Section 498A of Indian Penal Code were too stringent and non-bailable.

Women’s lobbies

“Though a debate is going on in legal circles on whether to amend or not especially Sec 498A to prevent its abuse, a few powerful women’s lobbies are blocking it,” said Suresh Ram, National Collegium member, All India Men’s Welfare Association, which organised the 3 {+r} {+d} Men’s Rights Conference of the Delhi-based Save Indian Family Foundation at Yercaud in Salem district.

Delegates from Maharashtra, Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and from the U.S. attended the deliberations.

A majority of them were from Karnataka, mainly young Information Technology professionals. They said that they would urge the government to replace the words ‘Husband and Wife’ with ‘Person’ in the said acts. They said that cases before Family Courts should be expedited and settled within two years.

The government would be approached to form National Commission for Men, they add.

Meet on men’s rights on August 15

http://hindu.com/2010/08/10/stories/2010081054380200.htm

BANGALORE: Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), a men’s rights organisation, fighting against misuse of dowry laws, domestic violence Act and other anti-male and unconstitutional laws, is organising the third Men’s Rights conference at Yercaud in Tamil Nadu on August 15.

Addressing presspersons here on Monday, Virag, a functionary of SIFF, said over 100 men’s rights activists from across the country representing 15 different NGOs working for men’s rights will participate in the conference to intensify the movement of men’s rights in India.

Various issues concerning men and problems faced by them, including setting up of Welfare Ministry for men and shared parenting, would be discussed at the conference.

Mr. Virag said that conference is called “Sugarless Independence Day”, this year. The activists attending the conference have decided to have sugarless tea/coffee and will not have any sweets on that day.

“Men’s rights activists feel that the road to freedom for men is still under construction and hence they have decided not to observe Independence Day” till their problems are solved by the Government of India.

Chairman of SIFF Pandurang Katti and Shiva Shankar, senior counsellor of SIFF spoke.

Aggrieved husband seeks proction

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/dnabangalore/epaperpdf/10082010/9bangalore%20main%20edition-pg3-0.pdf

498-A favours women, scrap it: Men’s lobby

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_498-a-favours-women-scrap-it-men-s-lobby_1412554

Neeta Kolhatkar

Mumbai: With more and more cases coming to light about women misusing the 498-A, men facing the repercussions of it, such as arrest and false charges, have formed a pressure group to get the women-friendly law scrapped.

“We have many real cases in which the husbands and their old parents have been arrested on frivolous multiple charges Women involved in these cases have used the 498-A to extort money. We demand that firstly, the men should not be presumed guilty, and secondly, the provision should not be woman-friendly,” Sandeep Kedia, member of an NGO, Child’s Right and Family Welfare, said.

Other members of the NGO too claimed that among them there were people who had even faced jail terms for the false cases filed against them and their parents by their wives.

One of them, Saif Tumbi, said that he had sent his wife a talaqnama by registered post. She accepted it, and yet filed a 498-A case against Tumbi. “I returned her mehr and jewellery, and she signed on a Rs4 lakh bond paper. Then, she went ahead and filed multiple charges against me and my aged parents,” Tumbi said.

The NGO members cited statistics procured from the national crime records bureau (NCRB). The data showed that the number of women arrested under 498-A has been on the rise — 27,832 women were arrested in 2004, as against 97,825 men; in 2006 the numbers were 31,253 women and 1,05,927 men; in 2007, 1,20,645 women and 4,13,790 men were arrested.

However, women are not ready to buy it. Veena Gowda, a woman lawyer, told DNA, “There might be some women who have misused this provision. But the number of women falling prey to domestic violence is a lot more. If anything, this provision has to be made a lot more stringent. It is the responsibility of men to treat women well. Those not doing it must pay the price.”

‘Go slow on 498A’, state issues notice to police stations

http://www.afternoondc.in/city-news/go-slow-on-498a-state-issues-notice-to-police-stations/article_5627

Go slow on 498A’, state issues notice to police stations

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

By Philip Varghese

With the increasing number of false complaints being registered by wives against their husband’s families and relatives under section 498A, the state government has decided to crack the whip on those who file such false complaints.

The state government, under the directives of the Union Home Ministry, has issued a notice (the copy of which is with this newspaper) to all police stations across the state to go slow in the registration of dowry and harassment to women related cases, especially in 498A.

The issue came to light when members of an NGO – Child Rights and Family Welfare, spoke to the media on Wednesday about the new directive to the police stations. “The Maharashtra Government and DGP have issued pre-arrest guidelines of people under section 498A of Indian Penal Code. A complaint under section 498A is first required to be referred to a counselling centre for counselling. Thereafter the concerned police station has to carry out an investigation of the complaint. The complaint should be registered and the arrest should be done only if the complaint has any substance in it. Since the time this penal provision was introduced in 1983 the provision was not reviewed and no built-in safety was provided to ensure misuse. This has caused a very large scale misuse of this section to settle personal scores. Innocent families are shattered and ruined in such a way that even Supreme Court has termed it as ‘Legal Terrorism’,” said Sandip Kedia, president of Child Rights and Family Welfare.

Speaking about the disadvantages of the section, he said, “The section is non bailable and non-compoundable, so the case cannot be withdrawn and hinders any scope of reconciliation between the couple and thus the whole family breaks. Since more than 95 per cent cases are found to be false, there should be Suo Moto Punishment for misuse of the law

CRFW Coverage – Hindustan Times

State relief for ‘harassed’ husbands

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/State-relief-for-harassed-husbands/articleshow/6193426.cms

MUMBAI: Men accused of ill-treating and beating up their wives for dowry may now breathe a little easier in the state. The state, say activists, is among the first to have issued guidelines to the police to conduct pre-arrest investigations into complaints made under Section 498-A of the IPC.

Sandip Kedia, president of Child’s Right and Family Welfare, a local NGO working for the rights of “harassed husbands”, said the guidelines issued in May 2010 by the state home deparment will now ensure that the police don’t make immediate arrests on receiving a complaint. “Usually the police rush to arrest the husband and even his aged or ailing parents, and investigate later,” said one member. The guidelines suggest that police ought to also first send husbands and wives for a marital counselling session.

Usually these cases do not result in convictions. A research study states that only two percent get convicted. “My father passed away due to a heart attack, even before the case ended. We were treated as outcastes by relatives and neighbours. Even today, I have cases against me but can’t afford a lawyer,” said one dejected man Ajeet Sakhalkar.

Fathers want fair deal

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/life/2010/05/14/stories/2010051450100400.htm

Many dads allege that in divorce disputes, mothers are granted custody of the child without evaluating what is best for the child’s welfare..

 

---

The Foundation wants the legislature and the judiciary to give all fathers a fair chance to win custody cases.

---

 

Nivedita Choudhuri Bhavya is cherubic, with a mass of dark curls that tumble down his forehead and a friendly smile. But the twinkling eyes of the child in the photograph don’t mean he hasn’t a care in the world. His parents are involved in a matrimonial dispute and the six-year-old hasn’t met his father since 2005.

International Day of Families, which is celebrated every year on May 15 to underscore the importance of families, may not mean anything to Bhavya and hundreds of other children like him. Deprived of the love of a parent, they have no option but to suffer silently. But Bhavya’s desolate father Kamal Vikram, unable to take it any longer, set up a foundation in his son’s name last year to help thousands of fathers facing bleak times like him.

Bhavya Foundation, in the words of its activist-founder, will seek to promote the concept of shared parenting in India and ensure that no child is denied access to a parent in case of divorce or matrimonial dispute between his/her father and mother. It also advocates the speedy disposal of child custody cases in courts so that the agony of the children involved is not prolonged.

The Foundation wants the legislature and judiciary to give all fathers a fair chance to win custody cases. Many dads allege that mothers are often granted custody without evaluating what is best for the child’s welfare. Moreover, Vikram says, children below the age of seven should not have to choose between their parents as this would constitute mental cruelty towards the child. Another demand is that orientation programmes for judges of family courts should be conducted by psychologists to sensitise them to child-related issues.

Foundation members call for laws such as Section 498A IPC and the Domestic Violence Act of 2005 to be made gender neutral. Section 498A IPC relates to harassment of a married woman by her husband or his family members and it has been alleged in recent times that this law is being heavily misused. Many of the 1,000-odd members have been charged under this law and the Domestic Violence Act.

Arnab*, a member, found himself in deep trouble after he filed for divorce last year. His estranged wife, who had already charged him under Section 498A IPC, immediately stopped their minor daughter from meeting him. He appealed to a family court, which passed an order allowing him to meet his daughter once a fortnight for two-and-a-half hours. The visits take place on the premises of the family court, where the atmosphere is least congenial. Arnab can’t take her out.

Arnab alleges that his wife invariably arrives late for the meetings and she has brainwashed the child to such an extent that the girl has started to believe her father will kidnap her or harm her. She has become aloof as a result and does not trust him. He regrets the fact that “courts are biased towards women and fathers are treated with utter disrespect”.

He adds that the meetings leave him “emotionally drained” and it takes him a couple of days to recover from the snubs and snide remarks of his wife and the rejection and alienation he feels after meeting his child. Arnab wants more time with his daughter and he wants the visits to take place outside the family court and away from the other parent.

Akash*, another member, lost custody of his five-year-old daughter to his wife last year. He has met his child only once in the last 10 months or so and that too for just two hours. He has filed an application to meet her on weekends and in school, but nothing has come out of it.

There have been many hearings and adjournments since then in the family court, but the case is nowhere near its end. He fears that nothing concrete will happen before the court closes for the summer vacation and he won’t be able to see his daughter for the next six weeks. He signs off saying even fathers have a heart and love their children as much as their mothers do.

Custody battles on the rise

Another group that supports a greater role for fathers in the lives of their children and the promotion of family harmony is Child’s Right and Family Welfare (CRFW). Sandeep Kedia, president of the NGO which was formed in January this year, says divorce cases are on the upward spiral, leading to a sharp increase in the number of child custody battles. Fathers are often denied custody and visitation rights and the children also undergo tremendous emotional trauma when their fathers are suddenly shut out of their lives. Members of the NGO meet every Saturday near the family court at Bandra, Mumbai, where they are given legal counselling. The NGO receives around 50 calls a week (helpline numbers are 9768046667, 9867854147) from harassed fathers locked in custody battles. A member rues the fact that the maximum time a father can hope to spend with his children is two hours every fortnight. That translates into 48 hours or so every year, which is highly insufficient for a father to bond with his children.

Kedia says while granting custody, courts should give the non-custodial parent weekend access to the child at home and a chance to spend festivals and birthdays together. Non-custodial parents should also be allowed to attend school events such as parent-teacher meetings and sports days as well as visits to doctors if their children are ill as both parents are equally responsible for the welfare of their wards. If these decisions are taken early enough in courts, precious time will be saved.

Both Vikram and Kedia reiterate that children need both parents and joint custody is a must. Sole custody signifies child abuse. Innocent children are being used as tools to get even with estranged partners. This is affecting the psyche of thousands of children and the adverse effects of all this will surface when they grow up, add Vikram and Kedia.

The legislature, judiciary and bureaucracy may have turned a blind eye to the plight of these children, but CRFW and Bhavya Foundation are determined to ensure that no child is denied the love of both parents. Mothers nurture, but fathers nurture too, and these dads will not be robbed of their nurturing rights so easily.

Men Who Cry

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/living/men-who-cry

17 July 2010

The men’s movement in India has gathered speed. Time to look at who they are and what they are about.

2

BY Pallavi Polanki EMAIL AUTHOR(S)

Tagged Under | men | movement | male

Backlash

RP Chugh: Known as the ‘Father of the Men’s Movement in India’. He started it all with his launch of the Patni Atyachar Virodhi Morcha. (Photo: ASHISH SHARMA)

Sachit Dalal: A project manager with an infotech firm, he is a member of the Save Family Foundation, Delhi.(Photo: ASHISH SHARMA)

Virag Dhulia: A Software engineer, he is a member of the research team of the Save Indian Family Foundation, Bangalore.(Photo: MANJUNATH KIRAN)

MR Gupta: An engineer from IIT, he started Protect Indian Family Foundation (PIFF) in Mumbai.(Photo: ALIEFYA VAHANVATY)

Durga Kollu: A software engineer, he started Sahana, a Hyderabad-based NGO for aggrieved husbands.(Photo: ANIL KUMAR)

Nine hundred newspaper articles in 2009. Phew! That is a lot of media attention given to husband organisations and their grouses. Organised male victimhood seems to be catching on. Last heard, members in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa have started local chapters and are waiting by their mobile phones to take calls by husbands who need to vent. Women’s groups are reporting gatecrashers from groups of men who want to be represented in their programmes. 

Blogs, Yahoo groups, weekly meetings, radio and television programmes, telephones, websites, posters, no media is being left unused to galvanise male oppression into a mass movement. 

In the 198os, a lawyer who came to be known as Comrade Chugh had a similar idea. It was a turbulent decade, a time when the anti-dowry movement was at its peak and had succeeded in making itself felt. RP Chugh, a Marxist who began his activism ironically with the Nari Raksha Samiti and the women’s movement of the communist party, changed tack to launch the Patni Atyachar Virodhi Morcha. Chugh might be last century’s news, but he is not without next generation followers.  

“If you go on the internet today, you will find that crores of people are with me,” says the 65-year-old Supreme Court advocate and President of the campaign now rechristened Man Cell. At his residence in New Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh, the walls of the front room are covered with newspaper and magazine clippings featuring him, some of them dating back 30 years.  The media loved him. 

“Take a look at the infotech professionals today. Many of them have started similar groups at my insistence. They used to be with me. I told them to start their own organisations. If you stick with one group, there won’t be any impact. They are coming up now,” he says. 

Indeed, the decade that witnessed the passing of the landmark Domestic Violence Act is seeing a second wave of sorts of a campaign against “women and women’s laws which are abused”, as Chugh puts it. 

Bangalore, India’s hugely successful brand in the West, is the headquarters of “the men’s organisation,” to quote one of its members. The Save Indian Family Foundation (Siff), an umbrella group, has activists and helplines in over 50 cities in 20 states. They also have NRI helplines. 

Started in 2005, Siff claims on its website to have ‘30,000 members on the ground and over 3,500 on the internet who are fighting this legal terrorism with vigour and passion like commandos’ and that its members include ‘most educated, qualified and talented (intelligentsia) people like engineers, management gurus, bureaucrats, media personalities…’ (the list goes on).

Then there are smaller, independent organisations that have mushroomed in the last couple of years in different cities. Lets list a few for effect. 

Gender Human Rights Society, New Delhi, Protect Indian Family, Mumbai, Bharat Bachao Sangathan, Kolkata, Sahana, Hyderabad, Asha Kiran (not related in any way to the NGO in Delhi), Bangalore, Protect Men’s Rights, Orissa, Pati Pariwar Kalyan Samiti, Lucknow, Association of Protection of Men’s Rights, Chennai, Gujarat Gaurav Raksha Samiti, Purushak Sangrashan Sanstha, Nasik, All Kerala Forum For Social Justice and Legal Studies, Kerala. 

There are 28 such organisations, some of them all-women groups (comprising mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law). 

Says Wasif Ali of the Safe Family Foundation, the New Delhi offshoot of the online community that began in 2005 and eventually gave rise to local groups: “Before we started this campaign, talking about problems of men was considered politically incorrect. We had to create an awareness campaign. Things are beginning to change now. The men’s movement is still in its infancy.” 

Why then call themselves ‘Save Family’ or ‘Protect Indian Family’ instead of, say, ‘Save Man’? To which Wasif says, “Family means husband, his mother, his sister. This is Save Indian Family, the husband’s family. It is not about saving marriages”. What about the wife and her family? “For that, there are 20,000 NGOs.”

SATURDAY MEETINGS

Every Saturday evening, members of the Safe Family Foundation (SFF) meet at Delhi’s Patiala House Court Complex, where incidentally some of them are fighting charges under, among others, Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code that refers to ‘cruelty by husband or relatives of husband’, a section that was inserted in 1983 to combat dowry killings. 

Meetings are seen as being vital to the campaign. “This is what we call group therapy. Just like Alcoholics Anonymous, where people meet to share their problems, we find that when we share our problems, they somehow get diminished,” says Niladri Shekhar Das, a civil engineer, also secretary of another group called Gender Human Rights Society. 

“We teach them how to fight the cases, how to file counter-cases, how to use the RTI Act (Right to Information), and we refer them to others with similar problems,” he says. So there are legal provisions that husbands can use to pre-empt and counter allegations by their wives.     

The RTI Act has become hugely popular in these circles and is used quite regularly by members to seek details on police investigation into their cases, information about in-laws, government statistics and so on.

Das says “gender-biased laws are breaking up families in India” and believes that “they are hurting women”. He has a theory on why so many cases end up in court. “In most of the cases here, the wives have psychiatric problems. It can be medically proven.” Surely, all wives who take recourse to the law can’t be mentally ill? “These girls think that some serious injustice has been done to them. Therefore, they go to the policeman or lawyer instead of going to a psychiatrist. These kind of girls have low-self esteem issues. And they also try to alienate the husband from his parents.” 

It certainly must be a theory that sells. From a three-member online community, SFF in New Delhi today has over 200 volunteers, dedicated to the media and internet campaign. 

Sachit Dalal, a project manager with an infotech firm who has been with SFF since its inception, has recently filed for divorce after six years of marriage. “Today women are expecting to command the house. If she wants to do that, then she has to prove herself. That is going to take five years, ten years. My mother did it.” Sachit believes women have been given “unnecessary legal power”.  

The shared sense of being socially persecuted has to be heard to be believed. 

Allegations by members at such meetings fly thick and fast. Crime statistics on women are rubbished. Women’s groups are dismissed as money-making rackets. Laws to protect women are judged counter-productive, even harmful to women. The Dowry Prohibition Law is declared a tool for extortion. The Women’s Reservation Bill is declared violative of the rights of men. 

And then the question of dowry. “Who says dowry is about money? Dowry is for security,” says Shoni Kapoor, a regional manager with a software company.

The “urban elite” and “educated middle-class” women come in for a lot of flak. “In urban areas, especially among the middle-class, the law is more prone to misuse. If the same woman did this in Bulandshahr, she will be a social outcaste. We are fragmented in bigger cities, and so the law gets misused. The law has lost relevance in most parts of the country,” wails Kapoor. 

There is talk of what Wasif refers to as “male disposability”. Men, he says, are born to suffer. Wasif offers an analysis. “You want to know why women are doing this? The roots are in feminism. 

The second wave of feminism influenced a lot of women. Divorce is now seen as a sign of liberation.” 

A backlash to the post-liberalisation ‘urban, educated, professional woman’ and her expectations of marriage seems to have arrived in all its fury. Madhu Kishwar, well-known for her role in the anti-dowry movement of the 1980s, is today one of the strongest critics of India’s anti-dowry legislation (‘Destined to Fail’, Manushi, 2005) and the Domestic Violence Act (‘Well-intentioned but Over-ambitious’, Manushi, 2006). What does she make of these groups? “These are anti-feminist NGOs… I see this as an inevitable backlash to the callous insensitivity of the feminist movement in India. You will see that if there is anyone they (anti-feminist groups) are willing to talk to with a measure of respect, it is me. They represent a well-deserved backlash.” 

Pulitzer prize-winning American journalist Susan Faludi, in her groundbreaking book published in 1991, Backlash: The Undeclared War on American Women, writes, ‘The anti-feminist backlash has been set off not by women’s achievement of full equality but by the increased possibility that they might win it.’ Faludi talks about this backlash as being ‘at once sophisticated and banal, deceptively ‘progressive’ and proudly backward. It deploys both the ‘new’ findings of ‘scientific research’ and the dime-store moralism of yesteryear; it turns into media sound bites both the glib pronouncements of pop-psych trend-watchers and the frenzied rhetoric of New Right preachers.’

MORE VOICES

Conversations with members in other cities, from other organisations, excite similar sentiments. There is no missing the overwhelming nostalgia for the pre-liberalisation idyll, for joint family traditions, for life in small towns.

For the aggrieved, this campaign is a highly emotional affair that has won their unwavering commitment in terms of time and resources. Ananth Ram, 37, a government employee, has been fighting a 498A case for six years now. He, his father and brother, spent a month in jail. 

“The judicial system in this country is third rate. Six years of my life is gone. I am sorry to have to say this, but it is unfortunate that I was born in India.” The legal battle exhausted Ananth Ram. To him, this has become a “movement for justice”. At Asha Kiran, where he first went for advice, he now counsels. “We advise couples to adjust with each other.” 

Durga Kollu is a 32-year-old software engineer based in Hyderabad. He started Sahana in 2005. The majority of those who come to him, he says, are between 25 and 30 years, and have been married for not more than three years. “Pressure from the wife and her parents to start a separate family without the in-laws, control over money, pre-marital affairs, constant threat of 498A, suicide threats by the wife—are some common problems men face these days,” he says. 

Kollu got married in 2006. He and his wife and daughter live with his parents.  He says, “The problem is, all those who start these organisations have in some way or another suffered due to the Indian legal system or at the hands of some women… so they lose all respect for women and create hatred towards them, which is not good for a healthy society.”

In Mumbai, 58-year-old MR Gupta, an engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, started Protect Indian Family (PIF) in 2006. Gupta is now studying law. He says he is not against laws that protect women, but, “Laws should not interfere in a marital relationship. This is a social problem. There should be workshops to help inculcate tolerance. Laws break marriages.” The legal scrutiny of marital relationships has stripped the Indian middle class home of its privacy like never before.

And the backlash has been swift and widespread. Vocal and unapologetic, these platforms make no pretence of what they stand for. They are the ultimate reality show on the great Indian middle class marriage.

FEMINIST ANALYSIS

Nivedita Menon, professor of Political Thought at Jawaharalal Nehru University’s School of International Studies, who writes on Indian politics from a feminist perspective, says, “Politically, it is good to have this voice because it very clearly reveals what the family is about. It articulates the violence and the core of the family so clearly, and, in doing so, exposes it.”  Menon sees the emergence of such groups as a regrouping of patriarchy and a sign of the success of legislation.

Vrinda Grover, a Supreme Court advocate and director of Marg (Multiple Action and Research Group), a legal advocacy and research group, says these laws are bound to unsettle some precisely because they are “meant to counter an entrenched interest, an entrenched discrimination, an entrenched violence”. What is interesting with these groups, says Grover, is the level of righteousness with which its members put forth their views. “That comes from their perception of a culturally subordinate and socially subservient position of women, which the law is trying to challenge and overturn. Therefore, these groups come across as ‘what have we done wrong?’”

That brings us to the one argument on which this whole campaign has been publicly sold—the “rampant misuse of law”. It is an argument that has succeeded in influencing the mind of many Indian males quite convincingly.

Professor Menon analyses the premise of the ‘misuse’ argument. “These men actually believe they were falsely accused because what they are saying is: ‘That is what a family is supposed to be, as a wife you are supposed to give up everything that you thought you were, we have expectations of you, which you are supposed to fulfill. That is marriage’. And women are refusing to recognise that as marriage. The men are right to say in a sense, ironically, that they are being falsely accused—because all they were doing was functioning as a proper patriarchal family.” 

Grover brings in the legal perspective. “The kind of propaganda that these people do which is based on data and on statistics can be challenged. Anybody who has worked in this sector knows that this data can be torn to shreds within minutes.”

Grover asked a public prosecutor why so many women witnesses turn hostile and why so many cases end in acquittals. “Once you start unmasking the figure, the story becomes clear. The women turn hostile because in criminal law there is not much space for negotiation. Either she has been told to back off or that they will pay alimony, or maybe they have struck a compromise and the husband has agreed to behave himself. They will keep telling you that so many women turn hostile. That doesn’t mean that the women lied in the first place and/or that they are lying now,” she says. 

Should women’s groups be countering the information blitzkrieg that has been unleashed on the internet and in the news media? The campaign, after all, makes no bones about its resentment towards women’s groups and their role in society and politics. Although women’s groups have been directly confronted on occasion, no public engagement or reaction has emerged yet from any of it so far.

Says Nilanju Dutta, project associate at the violence intervention team at Jagori, a New Delhi-based feminist resource centre, “For hundreds of years, women have had no option but to suffer silently. Now that we have been given a law against domestic violence, the men are up in arms? This is unfair. Let them bark. I don’t think we should worry. When there is change, there is always upheaval.” 

Indian anti-dowry and domestic violence laws, says Professor Menon, treat the family as a public institution to which public laws apply. “That is obviously going to create a huge crisis for the family. It is not surprising that the category of people who benefitted from this kind of ordering of society will resist these laws. What is surprising is that it hadn’t happened earlier.”

Of Husbands at the Receiving End

A growing group of harassed parents and their sons are rallying against the misuse of anti-dowry laws

BY Rahul Jayaram EMAIL AUTHOR(S)

Regardless of the overall powers that Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code has given women in this country, a slimey section of urban middle-class India is abusing it

A group of mothers-in-law, part of the All India Mothers-in-law Protection Forum, meet on a Sunday at Cubbon Park, Bangalore (Photo: MANJUNATH KIRAN)

Devasandra is a semi-rural suburb in Krishnarajapuram district on the outskirts of Bangalore. A look at some of its rural remains may give you an impression that all is well with the world. A farmer is tilling his land and kids are at play on a patch of rice paddy with the mother tagging along: to the unsuspecting eye, it’s a picture of marital bonhomie.

But less than hundred metres from a snapshot of bucolic bliss, a retired gentleman standing in the balcony overlooking his farm is getting phone calls that rip the heart out of notions like domestic harmony and marital bliss. The man, Balmiki Nayak, is a counsellor in the newly instituted All India Mother-in-Law Protection Forum (AIMPF), and is yelling back instructions in chaste Hindi to a young man in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, who has an FIR filed against him and his parents by his wife for dowry harassment. The name of the organisation may give one the impression of mothers-in-law being harassed, but in truth, it is a collection of fathers-in-law and theirs sons primarily.

“The institution of marriage as we see it in India,” says Nayak “is going for a toss. And this is especially true of middle and upper-middle class India.” On any given day, Nayak receives up to 20 phone calls from places as diverse as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Meerut, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Orissa, Dubai, Doha and Muscat and beyond. These are from young married men whose wives have accused them and their families of harassment by invoking Section 498-A and dowry harassment. Nayak tells anxious callers of the modus operandi of the ‘affected wives’. He details them of the ins and outs of Section 498-A and dowry harassment and informs callers about what to do when confronted by the police. He feels, regardless of the overall powers that Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)—it kicks in when a husband or relative of his subjects the wife to cruelty—has given women in this country, a slimey section of urban middle-class India is abusing it. A victim of such an ‘abuse’ himself, Nayak cites a telling example of another family that went through similar pangs.

The Mohantys, a middle-class family of three from Orissa, were looking for a bride from the state for their only son, Vineet, a software engineer in Bangalore. After several meetings with potential alliances, they zeroed in on one girl from a similar middle-class background.

Before marriage, the girl and her parents were invited to stay for a week at her potential in-laws’ place to acclimatise themselves to the new environment. The girl’s father insisted on buying a bigger bed for her daughter. The boy’s parents did not ask for dowry. Everything was hunky-dory. Boy and girl got married.

Within a fortnight of the marriage, things started to change. The girl would routinely badmouth her in-laws and husband for no apparent reason. She would lock herself up in the room and be in constant touch via mobile phone with her folks in Orissa. One fine morning when the husband and father-in-law were away, the girl’s brother landed up at the house. The girl and her brother cornered the mother-in-law and sped off to Orissa along with her belongings. The next day, the Mohantys heard news that a case of dowry harassment has been filed from Orissa. Before the cops landed, they had their anticipatory bail ready. These happenings, Nayak emphasises, are the crux of the stories that have played out in the lives of the members of the AIMPF. They meet and discuss these issues every Sunday at Cubbon Park in central Bangalore.

Virag Dhulia, who suffered a similar trauma and is an executive member of the AIMPF, says, “In principle, Section 498-A and dowry harassment laws are meant to protect harassed wives. True, in large parts of India, especially rural India, women go through hell. But in the case of the members of the AIMPF, we have only seen the law being abused, husbands unfairly harassed and the parents of the son undergo mental trauma.”

Formed in late September this year, the AIMPF, has ‘moral backing’ of the Save Indian Family Foundation (Siff), and has been organising a range of activities for raising awareness on how Section 498-A and dowry harassment laws have been misused. They have also been approaching the Government of India for institutionalising an organisation for men’s issues.

“If there’s a National Commission for Women, why not a National Commission for Men?” asks Dhulia. “There’s a problem as far as the role and function of men in Indian society is concerned. Let’s face it, we’re living in a time when the urban educated woman is clearly standing up to men, and outshining them on several fronts. Why then, do we have a blanket law like Section 498-A? Also, invoking this law immediately puts the girl’s in-laws and the husband in jail. But what happens if the boy and his parents are found not guilty? Shouldn’t the boy and in-laws of the girl be compensated? Why shouldn’t the girl be fined for pressing false charges?” fumes Dhulia.

Naveen Kumar, another software engineer whose wife has pressed harassment charges against him, highlights another point. “In many of the cases, it’s not the girl acting in isolation. There’s a larger network of police and lawyers working in cahoots to execute Section 498-A, no matter how flimsy the grounds for its invoking.” His arranged marriage lasted just four months. “In the case of my marriage, the divorce lawyers were the ones who gave information about 498-A to her parents.” When Open got in touch with his wife, she refused to talk.

After a trial that lasted nearly two years, Naveen Kumar and his family were found not guilty. When his wife had pressed charges, Naveen’s mother and retired pensioner father, nearly spent a night in jail before getting bail. His mother gets teary-eyed recounting the duress. “The girl abused us. Look at us, do we look like monsters?” she asks pointing to her son and husband.

On its part, the AIMPF is expanding as an organisation. This month, the Andhra Pradesh chapter was opened, and they are in the process of creating more state-level forums. They already have a kind of ready reckoner called Section 498-A and Domestic Violence Act (DVA) 2005 Survival Kit. It spells out to affected husbands and their parents what to do and what not to when the daughter-in-law invokes these laws.

The AIMPF has approached the National Commission for Women (NCW) on a number of occasions. The forum wants the NCW to note that provisions of both DVA 2005 and Section 498-A have been roundly abused by some married women, and to put certain strictures to check the misuse of marital laws.

When contacted by Open, an NCW spokesperson refused to comment on the matter. The AIMPF has also been emailing its concerns to various governmental departments including the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Law, and Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Sudha Sundararaman, general secretary, All India Democratic Women’s Association, (AIDWA), Delhi, is somewhat sympathetic to the cause of the AIMPF. “We need to understand, that mothers-in-law are women too. If there are grievances as far as the misuse of Section 498-A and Domestic Violence Act of 2005 are concerned, they need to be addressed. But let’s not forget that these laws are only the beginning in terms of legal empowerment for wives, women and mothers in India. Just because there are some cases which have been the raison d’etre for the AIMPF, doesn’t mean the law itself need be rejigged.”

A few Sundays from now, the AIMPF is planning to hold a dharna in central Bangalore to draw public attention to the issue. At last count, AIMPF’s membership has gone up to more than 200. “In an ideal society, an organisation calling itself a mother-in-law protection forum must not even exist,” rues Neena Dhulia, Virag’s mother. “It’s ironic that our numbers are increasing. It just tells you how many lives are going haywire.”

Some names have been changed to protect identities

Domestic violence affects men too

NGOs want protection of men in sexual harassment bill

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/NGOs-want-protection-of-men-in-sexual-harassment-bill/articleshow/6181780.cms

http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20100717/812/tnl-ngos-want-protection-of-men-in-sexua_1.html

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/NGOs-want-protection-of-men-in-sexual-harassment-bill/articleshow/6182189.cms

NEW DELHI: A group of NGOs working for men’s rights on Saturday demanded that the bill on prevention of sexual harassment of women at the workplace be made gender neutral to also protect men being harassed at the workplace.

The NGOs under the banner of Save Indian Family Foundation said the draft bill, which is likely to be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament starting July 26, should be discarded and a fresh gender neutral draft should be prepared.

The draft bill was prepared by the women and child development (WCD) ministry.

“The sexual harassment at workplace bill must be reviewed and amended immediately to make it gender neutral. The bill in its present form violates Article 15 of the Indian Constitution which prohibits discrimination against any citizen on grounds of religion or sex,” said Niladri Shekhar Das, general secretary of Save Indian Family Foundation.

The NGOs demanded that corporate bodies like FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry) and CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) and a corporate committee comprising equal number of male and female members be included while drafting laws to truly achieve equal opportunity at the workplace.

The proposed bill includes a clause which brings students, research scholars, patients and women in the unorganised sector within the ambit of the proposed law.

According to the government, the legislation will put pressure on the private sector, which has so far not been prompt in taking steps to check harassment of women employees.

The proposed law will ensure that a committee headed by a women is present in every firm to address cases of sexual harassment and a penalty is imposed on those who fail to follow the guidelines.

// <![CDATA[
var zz=0;var sldsh=0;var bellyaddiv = '

';

var stindex=100;
var stp=150;
var taglen=0;
var tmp;
var tagcheck = new Array("div","span","br","font","a");
var storycontent = document.getElementById("storydiv").innerHTML;
var firstpara = storycontent.substring(0,storycontent.toLowerCase().indexOf("")).toLowerCase();
function findptt(cnt){
zz++;
if(zz == 10)return;
var xxx=-1,yyy=-1;
var ccnt = cnt;
for(ii=0; ii < tagcheck.length; ii++){
xxx = ccnt.indexOf("<"+tagcheck[ii]);
if(xxx != -1 && xxx < 150){
stp = stp;
var tmp1 = ccnt.substring(ccnt.indexOf(“”);
if(yyy != -1){
taglen += yyy;
stp = stp + yyy;
yyy+=1;
}
break;
taglen = taglen + tagcheck[ii].length + 3;
}
}
if(xxx == -1 || xxx >= 150){
return;
}else{
var tmp2 = ccnt.substring(0,xxx);
tmp2 += ccnt.substring((yyy+xxx),ccnt.length);
findptt(tmp2);
}
}findptt(firstpara);
if(firstpara.length <= taglen + 150){
stp = firstpara.length;
}
var tmpminus=0;
var tmpcon = storycontent.substring(0,stp);
if(tmpcon.lastIndexOf(“<”) “)){
}else{
tmpminus = tmpcon.length – tmpcon.lastIndexOf(“// <![CDATA[
var RN = new String (Math.random());
var RNS = RN.substring (2,11);
var b2 = ' ';
if (doweshowbellyad==1)
bellyad.innerHTML = b2;
// ]]>

Man seeks alimony from partner

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Man-seeks-alimony-from-partner/articleshow/6164976.cms

HYDERABAD: Giving gender equality a fresh twist, a jobless man has sought Rs 8,000 a month as alimony from his ‘gainfully’ employed partner.

This gender bender case, which has landed at the Andhra Pradesh High Court, however, gets even more curiouser in its detail. The couple in question are not legally wedded but have been in a live-in relationship for the last 10 years and even have a daughter.

The Mahbubnagar-based couple’s happily ever after story hit a roadblock when the woman, who is 42, in a fit of rage filed a case of ‘dowry harassment’ against her jobless live-in partner, who is 51, alleging that he was physically assaulting her.

The woman, a multi-purpose health worker with a government hospital with a decent monthly salary of Rs 20,000 (especially in the context of a small town like Mahbubnagar), even moved out of the house with the child.

With sections 498 A, 506 and 509 of IPC pressed against him, the man moved the AP High Court seeking anticipatory bail stating that the charges were invalid since the two were never legally married. And then he served a googly — he filed a simultaneous petition seeking maintenance of Rs 8,000 from his live-in partner of 10 years.

When the case first came up for hearing at the High Court a few days ago, the counsel representing the man referred to a recent Supreme Court judgment wherein the apex court had granted alimony to a woman in a live-in relationship from her partner citing that the number of years the two had put together were ‘considerable’, akin to a marriage. The man in this case has now pinned his hope on the apex court verdict with his counsel arguing how he too has put in 10 years of his life into this relationship and is thus a ‘considerable’ time period for him to earn his alimony from the earning partner.

In the first hearing, the HC judge had asked the man’s counsel to look into the merits of the case himself and also consider whether the SC judgment can apply here, given the difference in the gender of the alimony seeker.
A similar case was filed by a Tamil Nadu resident Kalaiselvan who had sought a whopping Rs 25 lakh from his ex-wife, a news story that flashes on many websites catering to aggrieved husbands. But the judgment on the case is awaited.

On Tuesday, the HC posted the Mahbubnagar man’s alimony petition case for its next hearing on July 30. Clearly, an unusual gender test for the AP High Court.

End the draconian Sec 498 (A)

http://www.afternoondc.in/city-news/end-the-draconian-sec-498-a/article_4842

Thursday, July 08, 2010

By Prashant Hamine

Indian Family Foundation (IFF), and Mothers And Sisters of Husbands Against Abuse of Law (MASHAAL) have demanded an end to the misuse of Section 498 (A), 406 of the IPC. Their contention has been that in more than 90 per cent of the cases, the law is abused by the wife just to settle scores with her in-laws and to demand exorbitant alimony

The battle of the sexes just got that more belligerent and glamorous with former Mr. India-turned-actor, Aryan Vaid, lending his muscle to the agitation of the IFF against misuse of Sections 498 (A), 406, and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) by wives and their parents, against their husbands and in-laws.

Upping the ante further, social worker and Nationalist Congress Party worker from Goregaon, Ravindra Gangurde, even threatened to commit suicide before the Rashtrapati Bhavan on August 15, if the government failed to remove what he terms as the ‘draconian lacunae’ which hold the husbands’ parents guilty without fair investigation or trial.

It was quite an unusual scene outside Goregaon Railway Station, with a motley group of IFF activists holding placards calling for dilution, modification or repealing of Sections 498 (A), 406, 304 (B), 497, 375, 375 (A), 375 (D), 376 of the IPC. They also demanded the introduction of Sections 498 (B), 304 (C), 113 (C) and 113 (D) of the Indian Evidence Act to maintain ‘gender equality’ and introduction of suo moto punishment for misuse of any law. The IFF activists later courted arrest under a peaceful ‘jail bharo andolan’ at the nearby Goregaon police station.

Talking to the ADC, Aryan Vaid said “Just to harass men, I feel that many times, the law is being misused. The Miss India does espouse the cause of women folk. I too being a former Mr. India, I thought of supporting the IFF’s peaceful, non-violent cause.”

Mona Malhotra, a part of the women’s wing, IFF, said “Many provisions of the Domestic Violence Act are against the law and negate the principles of gender equality. Although the law and its provisions are meant to protect women against injustices from the family, in reality, the law only takes note of the wives, leaving out other aggrieved women. In most cases, the mothers and sisters of the husband are subjected to harassment. The husbands and his parents are often asked to cough up unrealistic amounts of alimony ranging up to Rs.1 crore! There is no proper verification done, and it often takes years to gather evidence against the husband and his family members, who are often denied bail and suffer social humiliation.”

Jinesh Jhaveri of the IFF, who led the demonstration, stated, “The government one fine day during Christmas vacations of 1983 gifted this Santa Claus gift called Section 498 (A). Ever since then, the legal provision, more often than not, has been misused by the wives just to settle scores with her in-laws. Our subsequent queries and answers sought from the government under Right to Information Act has revealed that in the recent past, big time abuse of the legal provisions has been made by the so-called aggrieved wives against their in-laws. There is no reality check in place. If you can have ministries and departments for animal husbandry, fisheries, women and children, then why not for men? Why not a National Commission for men? We are going to submit our memorandum to the President, the Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Director General of Police and the Home minister.’’

Indian Family Foundation (IFF) demands include:

*Introduction of National Commission for Men and Ministry for Men’s Welfare.
*Modify, Dilute or Repeal – Sections 498 (A), 406, 304 (B), 375, 375 (A), 375 (D), 376, 497 of IPC.
*Introduce – Sections 498 (B), 304 (C), 113 (C) and 113 (D) of the Indian Evidence Act for Gender Equality.
*IFF holds weekly meetings at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivli East.
*IFF can be contacted on 9769770498 / www.iff-ngo.org / help@iff-ngo.org / IFF, B-702, Sumer Nagar, S.V. Road, Borivli West, Mumbai – 400 092.

Gangurde’s last stand

Gangurde while addressing the crowd said, “The constitution guarantees equal rights for men and women. But these legal provisions are bad in law as they do not take into account the trials and tribulations that the boy and his parents have to undergo. If giving dowry is a crime, then accepting it is also a crime. The aggrieved party is not even given a chance to prove its innocence. If the government does not agree to our demands then I am going to commit suicide before the Rashtrapati Bhavan on August 15.’’

IFF_MEMO

To fight ‘misuse’ of pro-women laws, NGO opens branch in Patiala

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/to-fight-misuse-of-prowomen-laws-ngo-opens-branch-in-patiala/642780/0 

The Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), a non-governmental organisaton working to help families those who have been victims of false dowry cases and against the alleged misuse of pro-woman laws, opened its local chapter here today. 

The Patiala chapter of the organisation would be headed by Abhishek Kumar. Making an announcement in this regard at the local Red Cross Bhawan, Abhishek said they would work to help families that had been allegedly implicated in false dowry cases and would make the affected families aware about the alleged misuse of pro-women laws every Sunday at Baradari Gardens. 

“There is a provision in law, as per which taking and giving dowry is an offence. However, the police are quick to register an FIR against husbands and their families for seeking dowry, but not a single FIR has been registered against girls or their families for giving dowry,” said Vikas Kapur, coordinator of the Chandigarh chapter of the organisation. 

 

Another SIFF representative, Mandeep Puri said the World Health Organisation had identified misuse of Section 498-A of the IPC as a prominent reason behind elders’ abuse in India. “Rational and responsible citizens from all over the country and abroad have repeatedly warned that these laws in their present form are detrimental to family harmony, and left unchecked, these have enormous potential to shatter marital and family stability in the years to come,” he added. 

Addressing mediapersons, Abhishek said there was no conviction in around 98 per cent of the cases filed under Section 498-A of the IPC – thus indicating that the law was being misused. 

The WHO, in its report on India clearly cited Section 498A as one of the major reasons for the “Increasing Abuse of the Elderly in India”. 

Jail Bharo – Mumbai Coverage

Women-centric laws protested

07July2010-TOI-Mumbai

Women-centric laws protested

Members of the Indian Family Foundation conducted a peaceful ‘jail bharo’ dharna on Tuesday at Goregaon (W) to protest against the misuse of 498 A and the Domestic Violence Act, which the organisers termed as ‘wifecentric laws’. The event was supported by former Mr India, Aryan Vaid. Several women were also part of the protest and alleged that under the garb of being women-centric, these laws were being used to harass mothers-in-law and sistersin-law. The protesters were taken to a police station and later let off. The protesters said they want the government to set up a ‘Ministry for men’s welfare’.

AIFWA to protest against arbitrary arrests

http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/05/stories/2010070560631200.htm

AIFWA to protest against arbitrary arrests

Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD: The All India Forgotten Women’s Association (AIFWA) along with the All India Men’s Welfare Association will stage a demonstration near the Women’s Police Station at Basheerbagh on July 6 to pledge their support to the ‘Jail Bharo Andolan’ taken up by Maharashtra’s activist Ravindra Gangurde.

The movement, as well as the demonstration, will be in protest of ‘arbitrary arrests of ordinary law-abiding citizens’ under IPC sections 498A, 304B, Dowry Prohibition Act and other related laws, said Uma Challa, president of All India Forgotten Women’s Association, in a press conference here on Sunday.

‘Wife-centric’

Describing the aforementioned acts as ‘wife-centric’, Ms. Challa said the arrests without evidence or investigation amounted to violation of rights to life and liberty.

Citing the National Human Rights Commission’s observations, a memo issued by the Police Commissioner towards checking arbitrary arrests, and the web page titled ‘Abuse of 498A’ on the Police Department’s website, she said innocent citizens were nevertheless illegally detained, humiliated and subjected to blackmailing and extortion.

Plea to men

She urged men to free themselves from fear of humiliation and social stigma, and be prepared to court arrests and go to jails, so as to exert pressure on the authorities. The demonstration will be held between 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

‘Ban police role in marital counselling’

http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/07/stories/2010070762420400.htm

“On the pretext of protecting women from harassment police are abusing the accused”

 — PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

Harassed lot:All India Forgotten Women’s Association president Uma Challa submitting a memorandum to

Hyderabad: All India Forgotten Women’s Association (AIFWA) on Tuesday demanded the government to ban police involvement in marital counselling as it is a civil matter. Police intervention in marital issues was leading to indiscriminate charges on the accused husband and his family members. On the pretext of “protecting women from cruelty and harassment”, police were abusing the accused, said AIFWA president Uma Challa.

“Nearly five cases are registered against men under IPC section 498 A, 406, 506 in each police station in the city every week. Most cases are baseless and women are misusing the rights provided to them under the Act,” says Mrs. Challa.

This apart, no accused person (man, woman or child) should be arrested based on a mere complaint. Proper investigation should be conducted and written approval of respective zonal Deputy Commissioner of Police should be obtained before arresting any accused person, she demanded.

Jail Bharo campaign

As part of the “Jail Bharo” campaign, AIFWA members in collaboration with All India Men’s Welfare Association staged demonstration at Women Police Station, Nampally in the morning. Later, raising slogans and holding placards, the members took out a procession from the Women Police Station to the Commissioner of Police Office, Basheerbagh.

The objective behind the campaign was freeing ordinary male citizens and the humiliation and suffering they undergo after being charged under Dowry Prohibition Act, the demonstrators said. More importantly, family members alleging “dowry torture” against a man, should be equally prosecuted since giving dowry is also a crime, she pointed out.

AIFWA to protest against arbitrary arrests

http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/05/stories/2010070560631200.htm

AIFWA to protest against arbitrary arrests

 Staff Reporter

 HYDERABAD: The All India Forgotten Women’s Association (AIFWA) along with the All India Men’s Welfare Association will stage a demonstration near the Women’s Police Station at Basheerbagh on July 6 to pledge their support to the ‘Jail Bharo Andolan’ taken up by Maharashtra’s activist Ravindra Gangurde.

The movement, as well as the demonstration, will be in protest of ‘arbitrary arrests of ordinary law-abiding citizens’ under IPC sections 498A, 304B, Dowry Prohibition Act and other related laws, said Uma Challa, president of All India Forgotten Women’s Association, in a press conference here on Sunday.

‘Wife-centric’

Describing the aforementioned acts as ‘wife-centric’, Ms. Challa said the arrests without evidence or investigation amounted to violation of rights to life and liberty.

Citing the National Human Rights Commission’s observations, a memo issued by the Police Commissioner towards checking arbitrary arrests, and the web page titled ‘Abuse of 498A’ on the Police Department’s website, she said innocent citizens were nevertheless illegally detained, humiliated and subjected to blackmailing and extortion.

Plea to men

She urged men to free themselves from fear of humiliation and social stigma, and be prepared to court arrests and go to jails, so as to exert pressure on the authorities. The demonstration will be held between 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Law: Weapon of vengeance

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/102132/law-weapon-of-vengeance.html

Marriage, dowry, relationships, family, marital discord: it’s a potent mix of human emotions and failings and nowhere is this more in evidence than in the misuse of the Dowry Prohibition Act (DPA).

Extreme Decision Pushkar Singh, 34 Vineeta, 30 Mumbai Singh, a teacher, committed suicide after his wife allegedly implicated him in a false case for which he had to spend four months in jail. He hanged himself after his release, blaming his in-laws for his plight. He leaves behind a minor child and his ailing, aged mother.

All in the Family Brijesh Awasthi, 34 Sunita Awasthi, 33, Mumbai Brijesh claims that his brother-in-law borrowed money which he did not want to repay and in turn told his sister that Awasthi was planning to remarry secretly. Sunita committed suicide and his in-laws charged him with dowry killing. He is now bringing up his two daughters.

An incredible 9,000 husbands and their relatives (10 per cent of the total jail population) are languishing in Uttar Pradesh prisons under the provisions of the Act. Parents of estranged brides are increasingly lodging cases against their in-laws under the Act to “punish the husbands” and to also conceal the actual cause of the dispute between the couple.

“After murder cases, if there is any other crime sending the greatest number of people to jail, it is the Dowry Prohibition Act,” says senior IPS officer and Inspector General of UP Jails Sulkhan Singh. What that proves is that an Act meant to protect victims of dowry has become a weapon of vengeance and a mockery of the judicial system.

Indraneil Bhattacharya, a senior executive in a Lucknow-based private company, was married to Mausami Chatterji in 2002 and within five months their relations deteriorated. But they sustained their togetherness and had two children by 2008. “I requested her not to spend too much money on herself but she refused and finally filed a case under DPA as revenge,” says Indraneil.

“We have lost all our money in courts and police stations. Mausami and her kin have driven us out of our house. My parents, who had built the house with their hard-earned money, are now living in a rented house,” recalls Indraneil, who is now socially ostracised and economically broken.

The Act has caused so much trauma that Pushkar Singh, a teacher, even ended his life. Implicated under the Act, Singh was sent to jail for four months. He came back, wrote a letter blaming his wife and in-laws for implicating him in a false case of dowry and ruining his life. “I cannot face the society so I am ending my life” were his last words as Singh hanged himself. He left behind his aged and ailing mother and a child.

Another victim, Vikas Parihar, says his wife was a journalist who had illicit relations with the owner of a magazine, and when he protested she filed a case under the DPA. “I have lost my job, my money, my status in society and my family. My day ends running after police personnel and advocates. I have no money now. If I don’t contest the case, I would be convicted and sent to jail for a crime that I did not commit. But if I challenge it, I lose everything and may soon turn a beggar. What is the use of such a life?” says an emotional Parihar.

In an unusual case in Barabanki district, Saroj of Belia village was married to Ram Saran of Bhaisupur in 2006. One morning she was found missing from her in-laws house. Her father charged Ram Saran and his family with killing his daughter for dowry and disposing of her body.

The sessions court pronounced rigorous life imprisonment for Ram Saran and his family. But during the high court proceedings, the “dead” Saroj presented herself before the court, saying that she had eloped with her paramour and her father had out of vendetta filed a case against her husband and in-laws under the dpa.

There are, however, larger social and judicial issues here. Between 2000 and 2007, 795 minor girls and 1,300 minor boys were also booked under the Act. “In most cases the bride’s family lodges a complaint under the dpa against the husband and his family. 

Instead of investigating the case, the police immediately arrests the accused. This is ridiculous. How can minor boys and girls be involved in a dowry case? They may not even know what dowry is,” says a senior government official who himself faced such a case. While the situation in Uttar Pradesh is scary, chaos reigns across the country over the provisions of the Act.

National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) figures reveal that in the five years between 2004 and 2008, no less than 3,36,842 cases were registered under the Act and 94 per cent of the accused were absolved of the charges. The figures show that the DPA is being grossly misused by the bride’s family.

The misuse has now triggered off counter activism with many organisations like Patni Pidit Sangathan, Save Family, All-India Male Welfare Association, Hyderabad MASA (Mother and Sister Initiative) and Forgotten Women coming up across the country. Salem in Tamil Nadu hosts a national-level meeting of victims of the wife in August every year.

“I have no hesitation in saying the Act has become a money-making machine for the police and lawyers,” says Vikas Parihar, another victim. Swarup Sarkar, founding member of the Save Indian Family Campaign, said over 2,000 NGOs are working all over the country for women’s welfare, but not a single one for the welfare of men.
Sarkar added that most dowry cases are registered against economically sound families and then a gang of police personnel and advocates start extorting from the groom’s family. “How can a mere verbal statement by a woman be made the ground for the arrest of an entire family, including minors and elders without an investigation? This is unconstitutional and illegal. Even the Supreme Court has issued directives to first investigate DPA-related complaints and then make arrests,” says Sarkar.

In view of a growing number of dowry-related cases, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has constituted a Mediation and Conciliation Centre in the court campus.

Senior lawyer I.B. Singh, chairman of the centre, said that in the last eight months, 622 cases were referred to the centre, out of which 500 cases were dowry related but there was not a single case in which dowry was the real cause of dispute. Shabnam Siddiqui, a member of the centre said: “The misuse is increasing in the middle and upper middle classes with a good economic and educational background.”

After murder cases, if there is any other crime sending the largest number of people to the jails, it is the Dowry Prohibition Act. – Sulkhan Singh, IG Uttar Pradesh Jails

Even the President, the Supreme Court and a number of high courts have expressed their concern over the misuse of the Act. The apex court has even described the phenomenon as “legal terrorism.”

Lucknow’s Nari Bandi Niketan holds 151 elderly women. “Most of them have to serve life terms,” says a senior jail official. Many of them cannot walk independently or perform their daily chores.

Most have been abandoned by their own relatives. A senior jail official said of these 151 inmates, 105 had no visitors in the last one year. The remaining 46 had just three visitors despite the fact that the jail manual allows 12 meetings. “These inmates are like our family members and we take care of them,” says the official.
Indeed, it is common to see women and men between the ages of 65 and 70 years serving a life term. Apart from the mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law too were in jails with their children.

Now the All India Mother-In-Law Protection Forum has come up to fight for their rights. Parihar says that the Act is taking a heavy toll on men, adding that more than two lakh married men committed suicide between 2005 and 2008 while the number of housewives was much less.

Now, men are uniting across the country and demanding a review of the Act. That will be little consolation to the thousands of victims of vengeance and greed, stuck behind bars with their future in tatters.

Dads in distress pick up a fight!

A hundred years after Father’s Day was commemorated, fathers in India are still pitted against rigid ancient laws and struggling for equal right over their children…

Some believe that greeting-card companies are responsible for bestowing random days with the titles

of Father’s Day and Mother’s Day to boost sales. Nevertheless, people these days do play along and give an extratight hug to the person being honoured on the particular day. This month, fathers are enjoying their time under the spotlight, and they’ve come a long way since this day was actually established in 1910. June 20th marks the 100th anniversary of Father’s Day! A 100 years ago, listening to a pastor sermonise about mothers and the then newly-established Mother’s Day, Sonora Smart Dodd, who had been raised by her father – a Civil War veteran – after her mother expired, decided to institute a day to honour fathers too.

Fathers then were mostly perceived as ‘lazy, sleazy and drunk’, and Sonora hoped to give a leg-up to their image. A hundred years later, Father’s Day does get much hype, though still not as much as Mother’s Day, and there are still several struggling to be acknowledged at par with the women of the families, and be given the same rights as the mothers when it comes to their children…

“My wife Anubha Deveshwar had filed for divorce and child custody case simultaneously in Bangalore Family Court on 12th Jun 2009. She was granted custody of my daughter Shreya, who was 4.5 years old at the time, solely on the basis of her allegations. The judge’s order said: ‘Considering the facts and circumstances of the case..’.; however, the order was granted ex-parte without giving me a hearing. So, the right words in judge’s order should have been ‘Considering only the allegations made by petitioner…’” laments Vivek Deveshwar, a 38-year-old father from Bangalore. Vivek is one of the several people who joined the nation-wide protest organized by the All India Men’s Welfare Association (AIMWA) on 18^th June and boycotted the Family Courts. Their grouse against the Family Courts is that it ‘blatantly discriminates against fathers, heartlessly separates them from and prevents their access to their own biological children.’ “So many fathers will be pining for their children on this day. They’re unable get over the fact that allega they cannot communicate with their children and convey to them that they haven’t abandoned them; that it is because of circumstances that they’ve been separated,” shared Uma Challa, President of AIMWA. “It is almost impossible for Indian fathers to get custody of their children,” said Satya Kumar, Founder of 498a.org. “The Hindu Marriage Act is of 1955. The laws are very ancient.

When the laws were written, only 1% of the women worked while now about 25% work. Kids in the custody of working mothers are no better taken care of than kids living with fathers. The mindset of

people needs to change. There should not be women’s right and men’s right but the government should implement common family rights,” suggests Kumar. “Father’s day, Mother’s day or any other such day is just another opportunity to show your love for each other. At times, the occasion can present a chance to patch-up things, to clear the muck and start things afresh,” says Dr. Sanjay Chugh, Senior Consultant

Psychiatrist. Perhaps that’s why one of the demands being made by AIMWA is that ‘when a person or couple approaches court for divorce, counselling of the parents by professional counselors should be given first priority.’ This Father’s Day, let’s hope that it doesn’t take another hundred years for fathers to

get their due.

Amar Ujala Coverage – Fathers Day

दर्द इतना छिपा है उनकी आंखों में…

दर्द इतना छिपा है उनकी आंखों में…

स्र

अमर उजाला ब्यूरो

चंडीगढ़। ‘जो जिस हाल में है उसकी रजा से है, उसने सब कुछ बदला है, नहीं दी उसने किसी को ताकत तकदीर बदलने की’। एक हादसे में अपने चारों बच्चों को गंवाने के बाद भी सुरिंद्र कुमार भल्ला की परमात्मा में पूरी श्रद्धा है। वे सुन नहीं सकते, सिर्फ बोल सकते हैं फिर भी उन्हें परमात्मा से कोई शिकायत नहीं है। फे्रंच, रशियन, जर्मन, हिंदी, उर्दू, इंग्लिश, रोमन और चाइनीज भाषाएं जानने वाले 85 वर्षीय भल्ला सेक्टर-15 स्थित ओल्ड एज होम में आठ साल से रह रहे हैं। यहां ऐसे बहुत से बुजुर्ग रह रहे हैं जिनके लिए उनके बच्चों के व्यवहार ने फादर्स डे के मायने ही बदल दिए हैं।

लाहौर में पैदा हुए सुरिंद्र भल्ला विभाजन के समय भारत आए थे। उन्होंने एक दुर्घटना में अपने दो बेटों और बेटियों को खो दिया था। इस हादसे वाले दिन ही भल्ला केमाता-पिता की हार्ट अटैक से मौत हो गई और पत्नी पागल हो गई। आठ साल बाद हालात थोड़ सुधरे और पत्नी ने एक बेटी को जन्म दिया। भल्ला ने बताया कि उनकी पत्नी बीमारी से पूरी तरह से उबर नहीं पाई थीं। एक दिन वे मार्केट गए और पीछे से उनकी पत्नी ने खुद को आग लगा ली। बकौल भल्ला, ‘फिर क्या बचा था, बेटी को पढ़-लिखाया और उसकी शादी स्टॉकहोम में हो गई। बेटी दो साल में मिलने आती है।’

बेटा सेटल होने अमेरिका गया

रेडियो में गाना सुनने की कोशिश करते 79 वर्षीय महावीर सिंह को अब इंतजार है तो अपनी आंखें बंद होने का। बेटे सनी को पढ़या-लिखाया, लेकिन वे सेटल होने के लिए अमेरिका चला गया। महावीर कहते हैं, ‘’ मैं अकेला क्या करता, कोई संभालने वाला नहीं था। बेटे का कभी-कभी फोन आ जाता है, लेकिन उसका चेहरा देखे बरसों बीत गए हैं।

दूसरों में दिखता है अपनों का चेहरा :

जे पेटरस की दो बेटियां हैं। जब भी मिलने आती हैं दिल में दबी खुशी चेहरे से झलक उठती है। वे बताते हैं कि उन्होंने अपनी बेटियों की परवरिश बेटों की तरह की थी। बेटियों की शादी के बाद वे बिल्कुल अकेले हो गए थे। पत्नी की मृत्यु पहले ही हो चुकी थी। अपना गुजारा करना और अकेले रहना बहुत ही मुश्किल हो गया था इसलिए डेढ़ साल पहले वे ओल्ड एज होम में आकर रहने लगे।

पापा ने बनाया कामयाब इंसान

चंडीगढ़। पापा के लाइफ स्टाइल को कॉपी करने की कोशिश में लगे रहते हैं और जो थोड़ बहुत स्टाइल कॉपी कर पाए तो उसने कामयाबी की राह दिखा दी। पापा की बदौलत ही आज कामयाबी के मुकाम को पाने की हिम्मत भी आई और इसी बदौलत नाम भी हुआ है। आज हम अपने अच्छे जीवन के लिए अपने पिता के आभारी हैं और भगवान से दुआ करते हैं कि हर जन्म में उन्हें वहीं पिता के रूप में मिलें।

यह कहना है डीएसपी साउथ विजय कुमार के तीनों बेटों राहुल, मनन और मोहित का। पुलिस विभाग में जहां डीएसपी विजय कुमार को दो बार उत्कृष्ट सेवाओं के लिए राष्ट्रपति अवार्ड मिल चुका है, वहीं उनके एक बेटे राहुल ने कंप्यूटर्स में इंजीनियरिंग की है तो दो जुड़वां बेटों मनन और मोहित ने मॉडलिंग की दुनिया में अपना नाम कमाया है। विजय कुमार के पिता ऋषि प्रकाश भारद्वाज हरियाणा कैडर के आईपीएस अधिकारी रह चुके हैं। ब्यूरो

पापा तुसीं गे्रट हो

चंडीगढ़। प्यार की मूर्त होने के बावजूद पापा हमेशा बाहर से कठोर नजर आते हैं, लेकिन दिल में बच्चों के लिए मां से ज्यादा ममता छिपाए रखने वाले सभी पापा को सिटी ब्यूटीफुल की सेलिब्रिटी ने शनिवार को फादर्स डे पर सलाम किया। 20 जून को फादर्स डे है। इसे सेलिबे्रट करने के लिए बच्चे नए-नए तरीके अपना रहे हैं। फादर्स डे के उपलक्ष्य पर युवा लेखिका तिशा ने अपने पापा अनिल खोसला को विश किया। पापा ने भी इसे अपने ही ढंग से सेलिबे्रट करने की बात कही।

आईनिफ्ड इंस्टीट्यूट सेक्टर आठ के डायरेक्टर अनिल खोसला ने कहा कि वे एक बेटी का पिता होने पर गर्व करते हैं।

अपने बेटों के साथ डीएसपी विजय कुमार।

सेक्टर-15 स्थित ओल्ड एज होम में सुरिंद्र सिंह भल्ला उनसे मिलने आई ज्योति और अमीना के साथ।

साथ शेयर करते हैं खुशियां

मोहाली। पिता और बेटी का रिश्ता अटूट है। पिता जहां घर में बेटी को मां के गुस्से से बचाता है, तो समाज में उसे चलने के तौर तरीकेभी सिखाता है। बेटी के लिए पिता अहम है। कुछ ऐसी इकलौती बेटियों से अमर उजाला ने बातचीत की । जो मानती हैं कि आज जहां भी हैं, वे अपने पापा की वजह से हैं। उनकी नजर में उनके पापा ही सबसे ग्रेट हैं।

सीबीएसई के 12वीं कक्षा में आर्ट्स ग्रुप में शहर में टॉप करने वाली गुरमेहर की मानें तो उसके पापा मनजिंदर सिंह दुनिया मेंसबसे बढ़या हैं। गुरमेहर ने बताया कि वह अपने मम्मी-पापा की इकलौती बेटी है। गुरमेहर ने बताया जहां पापा मेरा हर मुश्किल के वक्त साथ देते हैं, वहीं खुशियों के पल भी हम एक साथ शेयर करते हैं। इसी तरह अमनजोत भी अपने पापा की इकलौती बेटी है। अमनजोत कौर ने सीबीएसई के नॉन मेडिकल की परीक्षा में शहर में टॉप किया है। वह कहती है कि उनकी यह सफलता भी पिता के सपोर्ट की वजह से है।

फादर्स डे पर विशेष

हमें नाज है बेटियों पर

चंडीगढ़। बेटियां कभी पेरेंट्स पर बोझ नहीं होतीं। अब तो बेटियां, बेटों से आगे निकलकर मां-बाप का नाम रोशन कर रही हैं। आज मुझे अपनी तीनों बेटियों पर नाज है। फादर्स डे पर विदेश में रहने वाली बेटियां भी खूबसूरत ग्रीटिंग्स भेजती हैं, तो छोटी बेटी पूर्णिमा किसी खास जगह पर डिनर कराती है। यह कहना है पंजाब यूनिवर्सिटी इवनिंग विभाग में कामर्स संकाय के हेड प्रो.एनके सहगल का। फादर्स डे पर प्रो.केएन सहगल और उनकी पत्नी डा.राकेश सहगल ने अमर उजाला से अपनी होनहार बेटियों के बारे में कुछ पल साझा किए। प्रो. राकेश सहगल गुरु गोबिंद सिंह कालेज फॉर वूमेन सेक्टर-26 के कामर्स संकाय में पढ़ती हैं। सहगल की बेटियों की कामयाबी की कालेज और यूनिवर्सिटी में प्रोफेसर उदाहरण देते हैं। डा. सहगल की सबसे बड़ बेटी पूजा सहगल पीयू में यूनिवर्सिटी बिजनेस स्कूल (यूबीएस) की टॉपर रह चुकी है। सीबीएसई में भी पूजा अव्वल आती रही है।

वह आजकल अबुधाबी में सेटल हो चुकी है। दूसरी बेटी पायल ने सीबीएसई दसवीं में ऑल इंडिया टॉप किया है। पायल आजकल यूएसएस में पेरालीगल में कार्यरत हैं। डा.सहगल की तीसरी बेटी पूर्णिमा सहगल के नाम तो कई रिकार्ड हैं। स्कूल की टॉपर रहने के अलावा पूर्णिमा ने बीकाम(पास),बीकॉम(आनर्स) और एमकॉम तीनों में ही लगातार पंजाब यूनिवर्सिटी में गोल्ड मेडल जीता है। पूर्णिमा ने केवल 25 साल की उम्र में ही पीएचडी की डिग्री हासिल की है।

ड्

पीयू में इवनिंग विभाग में प्रो. सहगल की तीन बेटियों ने नाम किया रोशन

द्

ड्

ओल्ड एज होम में बुजुर्गों को नहीं मिलने आते बच्चे

ड्

फादर्स डे के मायने ही बदल दिए हैं बच्चों के व्यवहार ने

महावीर सिंह

द्

मदर टेरेसा होम में फादर्स डे मनाया

चंडीगढ़। चाइल्ड राइट्स इनिशिएटिव फॉर शेयर पेरेंटिग (क्रिस्प) की ओर से सेव इंडियन फैमिली फाउंडेशन (सिफ) के सहयोग से शनिवार को सेक्टर-23 स्थित मदर टेरेसा होम में फादर्स डे मनाया गया। इस अवसर पर पिताओं ने कुछ देर के लिए मनोरोगी बच्चों के साथ प्यार बांटा। ये वे पिता हैं जो तलाक होने के बाद या निजी लड़ई के चलते अकेले रहते हैं और कानूनी धाराओं के चलते अपने बच्चों से नहीं मिल पा रहे हैं। इस अवसर पर संस्था सिफ चंडीगढ़ के कोआर्डिनेटर मंदीप पुरी ने कहा कि पिता की जिम्मेवारी केवल बच्चे की पालन पोषण की नहीं होती।

जे पेटरस

Crisp to Opt for Mother Teresa Home on Father’s Day

http://baretnews.com/story/20100619072601001b.html

Deserted Fathers Favours Single Parenting

CHILD RIGHTS INITIATIVE FOR SHARE PARENTING (CRISP) in association with SAVE INDIAN FAMILY FOUNDATION (SIFF), whose members are deserted Fathers and elderly citizens will share their love and affection with the mentally retarded children at the Mother Teresa Home, Sector 23, Chandigarh, on the occasion of the Father’s Day, here tomorrow.

These deserted fathers have lost faith in judiciary and are has been deprived off meeting their own blood. The members of the organisation have been seriously effects from the Parental Alienation of children due to single parenting in divorce/separation. They now favour single parenting. These deserted fathers are given limited hours of meeting their son/daughters by Indian Judiciary that too after fighting for years for their visitation rights.

Judicial & Governmental Apathy:

“The way justice is administered, the child is separated from the father (mostly) for years! One has to “apply” for “visitation”* that takes years to “grant” and even then for a paltry time. Innocent children suffer because parents are separating & fight for their egos! Our judicial mechanism has a deplorable understanding of child welfare based on biased and outdated social concepts. The father is a relegated to a mere “visitor”, eliminating involvement in the child’s life and just a “maintenance” paying ATM machine. It virtually condemns the child to an illegitimate. This is neither in the child’s nor the family’s interest and destroys the foundation for the future generation”, said Mandeep Puri, the coordinator, Chandigarh Chapter.

“The organisation terms the judiciary as Anti-Child, Anti-Father and Anti-Family. Divorce/ Separation are between spouses. Not child and parent. This is common sense. There is no law requiring a normal father to keep away from his child, in divorce/ separation proceedings”, Vikas Kapur, a member of the organisation.

Details:

Time: 2.30 PM ONWARDS

Date: June 19, 2010

Venue: Mother Teresa Home, Sector 23, Chandigarh

Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar Virodhi Sangh-protest

http://topics.pe.com/photo/04D38In1FO6rN

3 days ago Members of the Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar Virodhi Sangh, or All India Union against Harassment by Wives, participate in a rally to celebrate the 12th anniversary of their foundation in Ahmadabad, India, Wednesday, June 23, 2010. The union formed twelve years ago to protest against Indian Penal Code’s (IPC) Section 498A, a criminal law to punish dowry offenders, and other divorce laws to provide maintenance to women after divorce. The protesters allege that women misuse these laws for their benefit. Placard depicts husbands being at the receiving end of IPC’s section 498A. 

Members of ‘Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar Virodhi Sangh’ demonstrate outside the family court in Surat

Publication: The Times Of India Ahmedabad;

Date: Mar 26, 2010;

Section: Gujarat;

Page: 7

Members of ‘Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar Virodhi Sangh’ demonstrate outside the family court in Surat

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:LowLevelEntityToPrint_TOINEW&Type=text/html&Locale=english-skin-custom&Path=TOIA/2010/03/26&ID=Pc00709

All India Union against Harassment by Wives

http://photogallery.outlookindia.com/default.aspx?pt=3&ptv=0&date=06/23/2010&pgid=24864

Jun 23, 2010 Members of the All India Union against Harassment by Wives, participate in a rally to celebrate the 12th anniversary of their foundation in Ahmadabad. The union formed twelve years ago to protest against IPC Section 498A, a criminal law to punish dowry offenders, and other divorce laws to provide maintenance to women after divorce. The protesters allege that women misuse these laws for their benefit. Placard depicts husbands being at the receiving end of IPC’s section 498A.

Harassment by Wives

http://www.siasat.com/photos/harassment-wives

Thursday, 24 June 2010

Members of the Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar Virodhi Sangh, or All India Union against Harassment by Wives, participate in a rally to celebrate the 12th anniversary of their foundation in Ahmadabad. The union formed twelve years ago to protest against Indian Penal Code’s (IPC) Section 498A, a criminal law to punish dowry offenders, and other divorce laws to provide maintenance to women after divorce. The protesters allege that women misuse these laws for their benefit. Placard depicts husbands being at the receiving end of IPC`s section 498A.

Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar Virodhi Sangh-protest

http://in.news.yahoo.com/photos/slideshow/world-in-pics-june23.html?curPhoto=4

Wed, Jun 23

Members of the Akhil Bhartiya Patni Atyachar Virodhi Sangh, or All India Union against Harassment by Wives, participate in a rally to celebrate the 12th anniversary of their foundation in Ahmadabad, India, Wednesday, June 23, 2010. The union formed twelve years ago to protest against Indian Penal Code’s (IPC) Section 498A, a criminal law to punish dowry offenders, and other divorce laws to provide maintenance to women after divorce. The protesters allege that women misuse these laws for their benefit. Placards speak against IPC’s 498A and depict husbands being at the receiving end.

 

Father’s Day celebration of a different kind

http://www.jagrancityplus.com/storydetail.aspx?articleid=26592&catgid=17&cityid=1&Bool=h

This week saw the city dwellers celebrating Father’s Day by gifting cards, gifts, etc or by taking father’s out for lunch or dinner but there was a group which celebrated it in a completely different way. They staged a demonstration against the discrimination of men and fathers and called for a boycott of family courts.
The All India Men’s Welfare Association (AIMWA) is one of its kinds of group in the country which fights for the rights of men and fathers. According to it, gross injustice is being done to men and children in matters of matrimonial conflicts where custody of children is granted only to women, with total disregard to the love and affection that fathers and children have towards each other.
Fathers are denied custody as a rule rather than an exception. If at all only visits are allowed to fathers and it is also limited to 30 min or 1 hour in a month contrary to the requirement of the UN resolution that no child should be denied access to either of the parents.
According to them, Indian Family Courts appear to have declared a war against fathers and are adopting every possible means to create a “fatherless society” and to reduce men to mere ATM machines.
They blame the family courts for adopting the unhealthy practice of depriving fathers of the right to love and care for their biological children and forcing fathers to pay huge sums of money to support children they are not allowed to see. Allowing biological fathers to be labelled “kidnappers” for trying to make contact with their own children. Prolonging custody/visitation matters for years, thereby driving fathers into financial and emotional bankruptcy and forcing them to give up the desire to see their children.
They say cases filed in family courts linger on indefinitely while wives enjoy full custody of children, interim maintenance and child support at the expense of husbands.
The attitude of the family courts in the matters of ordering child custody/visitation, maintenance and alimony is completely biased against husbands.
While there is much emphasis on a wife’s rights on husbands and children, no order is passed on the responsibilities of a wife towards herself and her matrimonial family. Husbands, on the other hand, are heaped with disproportionate responsibilities with no rights over their wives or children.
AIMWA wants that steps should be immediately taken by family courts across the country to uphold the rights of fathers and ensure the welfare of children. Some of the steps are special fast-track courts should be set up at the earliest to deal with custody issues, Exclusive and fully functioning Divisional Bench should be set up in all High Courts and Supreme Court to hear appeals in matters of child custody and when a person or couple approaches court for divorce, counseling of the parents by professional
counselors should be given first priority.
AIMWA has also enclosed applications signed by hundreds of fathers of the city.
President of AIMWA (Andhra Pradesh) Uma Challa, said, “Every year, the third Sunday of June will be celebrated as a Fatherless Day. As every year more and more children are becoming fatherless thanks to the family courts which grant sole and total custody of children to mothers.”

Husbands allege misuse of Domestic Violence Act

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article38941.ece

Men from across the city wore badges that read ‘Husband not an ATM machine’, ‘Alimony kills her real potential’ and the like on Monday to mark the third anniversary of the Protection of Women against Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) coming into force here.

These men were victims of the misuse of laws like the PWDVA, section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (husband or relative of husband subjecting a woman to cruelty), section 125 of the Criminal Procedures Code (maintenance of wives, children) and child custody laws, which, they claimed, were heavily biased in favour of women.

Jinesh Zaveri, a member of the Indian Family Foundation (IFF) said, “Men who complain about physical or verbal violence inflicted by their wives are generally portrayed as cartoons. It needs to be understood that a huge number of men in the country has been caught in the web of false cases registered by their wives under various laws.”

Mr. Zaveri claimed that 98 per cent of all domestic violence cases were found to be baseless and false. He said: “We stand by the women who file genuine cases. But these laws, made for Sitas, have been cashed in on by Surpanakhas. Many women misuse these laws to exact alimony from their husbands. We are instead in favour of sponsoring professional courses for wives so that they become self-sufficient after parting from their husbands.”

Jaspreet Singh, a member of the IFF, said that he had to give 50 per cent of his salary to his wife as alimony, while she herself earned 50 per cent of his salary. The amount was huge considering that their marriage had lasted only a year and they had not had any children.

Dr. Sandeep Padwale, another member of the organisation, said that his wife was employed but had claimed to be otherwise in her affidavit. The emotional turmoil had cost him his job.

In order to address the problem of false cases, the men demanded a provision for punishment for all those misusing the law. They said that there should be a separate section in the IPC to safeguard the rights of men who were victims of the misuse of domestic violence laws. They also demanded the formation of a Ministry of Men’s Welfare “as it would take care of the very originator and contributor of the tax to the government.”

Mr. Zaveri said that the most basic problem encountered by men was that the police did not register cases against their wives. As a result there were no statistics regarding the number of men suffering because of false cases of domestic violence.

The organisation, therefore, used suicide statistics obtained from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to arrive at estimates of misuse.

Mr. Zaveri said that as per the figures, over 56,000 married men committed suicide compared to 30,000 married women in 2007. Out of every 100 male suicides, 45 were married, while for every 100 female suicides, 25 were married.

He said that not only did false cases under the PWDVA drive the husbands to suicide but they also took a toll on the health of the husband’s parents.

Gagged, framed, fined and punished

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/24651/else-where.html

Sharon Verma examines how laws meant to empower women sometimes serve as weapons that perpetuate large-scale human rights abuse against men, women and children 

 
Laws designed to protect some women (read wives) often bring suffering to other women (read mothers and sisters). That’s why Hyderabad-based Uma Challa set up a forum called All India Forgotten Women (AIFW) in 2005. AIFW, Challa says, was “launched in response to the large-scale arrests of women, falsely accused, under IPC Section 498A”.

Section 498A was made part of the Indian Penal Code in 1983 and it reads: ‘Whoever being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be imprisoned for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.’

Section 498A is non-bailable and cognizable (i.e., the person(s) can be arrested without investigation or a warrant on a report from a woman or her close relative).
AIFW was formally registered in 2008 after Challa saw “how women were being victimised by the very laws that claim to protect them”.

Her forum fights the misuse of  the Domestic Violence Act, adultery laws, laws against rape and sexual harassment, family laws (divorce, maintenance and child custody) and, of course, IPC Section 498A.

AIFW also organises seminars, protests and awareness campaigns to highlight how laws actually meant to empower women sometimes serve as weapons that perpetuate large-scale human rights abuse against men, women and children. It counsels families that have been victimised by the misuse of such laws.

Women like Ashita have approached AIFW for aid and advice very often. Ashita’s former daughter-in-law slapped a case of dowry harassment on her and her son six years ago. The girl claimed that her in-laws had removed her jewellery from her bank locker. Ashita says she has enough evidence to disprove the allegations, but the case has been dragging on in a court in Kerala for the last six years.

In another case, Sushmita, a retired professor, and her 70-year-old husband have been accused of taking dowry from their former daughter-in-law. “My life has become hell after my former daughter-in-law accused us of demanding Rs 5 lakh a day before the wedding,” says Sushmita.

 Sreela’s brother and sister-in-law had a row soon after they got married. Her brother’s in-laws reportedly threatened her mother that they would file false cases against her if she did not give her son and daughter-in-law a share in her property. Sreela’s mother is  a widow and the mental torture she is facing, according to her daughter, is “unbearable”.
Sreela feels disturbed to see her mother suffer, but admits that there is nothing she can do. “Section 498A of the IPC was drafted to protect married women from being subjected to cruelty by their husband and in-laws. But with almost every other marital spat being turned into a dowry harassment case, the law is in constant danger of being misused,” says Challa.

According to Internet reports quoting National Crime Records Bureau figures, more than  1.2 lakh women have been falsely implicated under Section 498A. Challa says it is time the Indian government takes appropriate measures so that nobody is harassed unjustly in the future.

Now a Men’s Rights Organisation Supports Shoaib

http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?678707

The Save Indian Family Foundation, a men’s rights organisation fighting against misuse of marital laws and domestic violence act, today voiced its concern over section 498 A (harassment) of IPC being filed against Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik and reiterated its demand for scrapping it.

“Marriage disputes before, during and after marriage are civil disputes and they have to be tried under a civil court. It has become a regular habit for women and their families to invoke section 498A for every petty dispute in marriage”, the organisation said in a release here.

“It is dangerous if every marriage or relationship dispute is considered a crime by the Government and it sends police to interrogate, counsel or settle these marital disputes. What crime did Shoaib Malik commit that he is victimised in this way?” SIFF activists asked.

“Whether the claims by Ayesha Siddiqui are false or true, that is up to a family court or civil court to decide and give a judgement”, it said.

The Government must scrap section 498 A of IPC on April 16 as soon as Parliament meets for Budget session.

Section 498A is the most misused,it said. In 2008, more than 81,000 cases were registered under the section which resulted in arrest of 37369 women and 127492 men.

“So far as Shoaib Malik is concerned, section 498A against him has to be dropped immediately and his passport returned to him”, it said.

Harassed men want Centre’s help

http://expressbuzz.com/cities/bangalore/harassed-men-want-centre%E2%80%99s-help/173680.html

Express News Service

First Published : 15 May 2010 06:31:23 AM IST

Last Updated : 15 May 2010 06:50:01 AM IST

 

BANGALORE: In an attempt to turn the tide of gender equality in favour of men, various pro-men organisations have asked the Centre to form a National Commission for Men.

In a joint press conference of the Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP) and All India Mother-in-law Protection Forum (AIMPF) on Friday, members vouched for a commission for men to address their issues.

CRISP president Kumar Jahagirdhar said even 63 years after independence, not a single rupee was allotted for men’s welfare in India.

“Every year, around 58,000 married men are committing suicides, which is double the number of married women as per the National Crime Records Bureau,” he added.

There are other issues such as unemployment, sexual harassment, domestic violence, dowry harassment, heart attacks and various ailments, which need to be studied in detail and addressed.

Other demands raised in the conference included scrapping section 498A (cruelty by husband and relatives) of the Indian Penal Code, scrapping the current form of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act and to rewrite it by incorporating representation from husbands and their parents.

Vivek of SIFF said they would initiate a ‘Family breaking awareness month’ campaign from May 15. The campaign will create awareness about breaking of families due to laws and biases against husbands and fathers. 

Express News Service

First Published : 15 May 2010 06:31:23 AM IST

Last Updated : 15 May 2010 06:50:01 AM IST

 

BANGALORE: In an attempt to turn the tide of gender equality in favour of men, various pro-men organisations have asked the Centre to form a National Commission for Men.

In a joint press conference of the Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP) and All India Mother-in-law Protection Forum (AIMPF) on Friday, members vouched for a commission for men to address their issues.

CRISP president Kumar Jahagirdhar said even 63 years after independence, not a single rupee was allotted for men’s welfare in India.

“Every year, around 58,000 married men are committing suicides, which is double the number of married women as per the National Crime Records Bureau,” he added.

There are other issues such as unemployment, sexual harassment, domestic violence, dowry harassment, heart attacks and various ailments, which need to be studied in detail and addressed.

Other demands raised in the conference included scrapping section 498A (cruelty by husband and relatives) of the Indian Penal Code, scrapping the current form of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act and to rewrite it by incorporating representation from husbands and their parents.

Vivek of SIFF said they would initiate a ‘Family breaking awareness month’ campaign from May 15. The campaign will create awareness about breaking of families due to laws and biases against husbands and fathers.

Despite protest by AIMWA/AIFWA, Lazy stubble campaign wins at Cannes after flak at home

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/lazy-stubble-campaign-wins-at-cannes-after-flak-at-home/636797/0

Posted: Tue Jun 22 2010, 02:16 hrs New Delhi:

Posted: Tue Jun 22 2010, 02:16 hrs
New Delhi: Valentine Gift’sDiscount Shopping Discussion

It may have created a furore back home but consumer products company Procter & Gamble’s “integrated” marketing campaign War Against Lazy Stubble (WALS) — for one of its premium razors, the Gillette Mach3 — is being hailed in the global advertising and marketing community for its imaginative use of media.

WALS is the only Indian entry to have won a silver medal in the “integrated campaign led by PR (public relations)” category at the 57th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. The development also establishes the growing clout of PR agencies in the media business.

For those who came in late, here is how WALS was conceptualised and implemented: P&G was faced with a unique situation in India that men here shaved only once a week. It didn’t augur well for its razor portfolio, specially premium products such as the Gillette Mach3.

The company roped in advertising agency BBDO India to push razor sales. What followed was an interesting survey conducted by market research agency The Nielsen which found 77 per cent of Indian women preferred clean-shaven men. Public relations agency Webber Shandwick was then engaged to “drive the results of the survey across the country through a good use of media”.

It was a queer “co-incidence” that around the same time, three Bollywood actors Neha Dhupia, Mugdha Godse and Minissha Lamba launched WALS, under which they protested that since they waxed and shaved regularly to look presentable to men, they expected men to return the favour by shaving regularly. To drive home the point, they shaved men in public places such as malls and finally, a “Shaveathon” was organised in Mumbai where around 2,000 men were shaved as part of the campaign. P&G immediately adopted WALS and its PR agency made sure that every move of WALS got due coverage in the media, including newspapers and television news channels. “From sending out press releases, to suggesting stories to journalists, to providing interview opportunities with WALS celebrities to media were all part of our PR effort to make the campaign a success,” said Rhea D’Souza, an executive with Webber Shandwick. The results of The Nielsen survey and the protests organised by WALS were prominently covered by news organisations such as The Times of India and CNN-IBN.

In its nomination sent to the Cannes jury, BBDO India, however, has admitted that WALS was its own creation, which essentially means the Bollywood actors were engaged by P&G. The campaign was hugely criticised by media observers and even consumers for camouflaging a commercial initiative as a social development and also using the credibility of news media to build consumer confidence. A body by the name of All India Men’s Welfare Association (AIMWA) was set up in October to protest against the “sexist” campaign. Another body All India Forgotten Women’s Association launched a massive protest alleging the ad was “derogatory” and had the potential to create disharmony in families.

There were also allegations that a lot of media coverage was paid for by the PR agency. D’Souza, however, asserted that no news item was paid for. “We only gave the journalists the cue. What appeared in media was totally an editorial initiative,” she said.

The campaign, however, was a huge commercial success as it not only helped P&G build an immediate buzz about the product but, according to the note sent to the Cannes jury, also pushed its sales “by 500%”. Citing data from The Nielsen, the nomination note says after the campaign, the product’s “market share went up by 400%”. It further adds “the campaign got over $2.5 million worth of free media coverage.”

“Being shortlisted in the best integrated campaign led by PR at Cannes is like icing on the cake for us,” said Josy Paul, chairman, BBDO India.

AIMWA-Hyderabad Press Conference-Father’s Day 20th June 2010-Photo

Memorandum submitted on the occasion of Fathers’ Day!

 

http://www.merinews.com/article/memorandum-submitted-on-the-occasion-of-fathers-day/15823544.shtml

A MEMORANDUM was submitted to the Chief Justice of Karnataka by the Family Harmony Society, seeking justice for fathers and children separated due to marital discords.

The memorandum has asked for personal and valuable intervention of the chief justice in setting right the gross injustice being done to men and children in matters of matrimonial conflicts where custody of children is granted only to women, with total disregard to the love and affection that fathers and children have towards each other.
Fathers are denied custody as a rule rather than an exception. If at all visitation is ordered to fathers, it is limited to 30 min or 1 hour in a month contrary to the requirement of the UN resolution that no child should be denied access to either of the parents.
We are constrained to bring to your notice that Indian Family Courts appear to have declared a war against fathers and are adopting every possible means to create a ‘fatherless society’ and to reduce men to mere ATM machines and sperm donors.

Family Courts have adopted the unhealthy practice of depriving fathers of the right to love and care for their biological children.

1) Forcing fathers to pay huge sums of money to support children they are not allowed to see.
2) Encouraging false allegations of abuse, to paint fathers as unfit parents.
3) Permitting multiple legal battles to eliminate biological fathers from their children’s lives.
4) Passing ex-parte orders based solely on the allegations made by a child’s mother.
5) Allowing mothers to brazenly disobey visitation orders without legal repercussions to them.
6) Allowing biological fathers to be labelled ‘kidnappers’ for trying to make contact with their own children.
7)Prolonging custody/visitation matters for years, thereby driving fathers into financial and emotional bankruptcy and forcing them to give up the desire to see their children.

Cases filed in Family Courts linger on indefinitely while wives enjoy full custody of children, interim maintenance and child support at the expense of husbands. The attitude of the Family Courts in the matters of ordering child custody/visitation, maintenance and alimony is completely biased against husbands.
While there is much emphasis on a wife’s rights on husbands and children, no order is passed on the responsibilities of a wife towards herself and her matrimonial family. Husbands, on the other hand, are heaped with disproportionate responsibilities with no rights over their wives or children. The brazenly anti-male mindset of Indian Family Courts is making it a crime to be born male in India.
The continued onslaught on men and manhood is gradually destroying the faith of men on the system of marriage and societal values as a whole. As a result many men are being forced to commit suicide or shun marriage altogether paving the way for a fatherless society full of single mothers in the future.
We request the Hon’ble Chief Justice to ponder over these issues and contribute towards promoting a congenial atmosphere in the Family Courts for men, women and children. On the occasion of Fathers’ Day, we wish to make the following demands:

Reforms in Mediation Counseling and Pleadings: The presence of and pleadings by Advocates in the Family Court and mediation process should be eliminated as mandated by the Family Courts Act .Persons who are professionally qualified and have a balanced perspective on family and society should be appointed as counsellors and mediators. Counsellors and mediators should be adequately compensated fixing a rate of at least Rs. 20,000 per case, made payable by the spouses equally. Mediators should be given exclusive powers to decide on dates and adjournments and should be required to conduct mediations and counselling throughout the year without holidays.
No in-camera and chamber proceedings should be held unless absolutely necessary and the purpose duly recorded in the Court register. Perjury Courts should order perjury and contempt proceedings in case of exaggerated statements and false allegations or affidavits related to employment, earnings, cruelty etc. when such allegations are proved to be false. Spouses making false allegations should be punished under the appropriate sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Child Custody matters: Family Courts should ensure that both parents are given equal custody of children irrespective of the accusations of either party (such as a mother being adulterous or a father being a drunkard). The practice of showing children for 30 minutes or 1 hour like a TV show to a father without providing him an opportunity to demonstrate his fatherly care and affection should be done away with. We strongly denounce the attitude of the Family Courts which consider children as the exclusive property of the wife and totally deny access to the husband and his family while passing interim and final orders.
We strongly condemn the belief of the Family Courts that the husband alone is bound to earn and maintain his wife and children, even though the wife is either earning or sufficiently qualified to earn. The practice of passing orders for monetary compensation, should be done away with and instead, parents should be directed to share the responsibilities like buying medical insurance, pay the school fee, purchase clothes, books etc., for children based on their respective and combined financial capacities.

The following steps should be immediately taken by Family Courts across the country to uphold the rights of fathers and ensure the welfare of children:

Special fast-track courts should be set up at the earliest to deal with custody issues. Exclusive, fully functioning Divisional Bench should be set up in all High Courts and Supreme Court to hear appeals in matters of child custody. When a person or couple approaches court for divorce, counseling of the parents by professional counselors should be given first priority. Except in extreme cases of violence or unhealthy behavior by either partner, children should be given equal and meaningful access to both parents and grandparents on both sides.
Both parents should be given financial responsibility of the child proportionate to their earnings and not based on demands made by either partner. If a partner prevents a child from having equal and meaningful contact with the other partner, they should be counseled first to understand the importance of equal parenting and the best interest of a child. If either partner repeatedly disobeys orders of equal access and meaningful contact with children, then the children should be placed in the full custody of the partner who will allow equal access to the other parent.

We submit that our demands are just and reasonable and that the non-implementation of our demands will result in serious consequences to men, women, children, families and the society as a whole. We enclose, herewith, the petitions signed by hundreds of fathers in the Family Courts in Bangalore. We look forward to your prompt intervention and necessary action in this regard. Sincerely, Jai Hind!

Father’s Day

Deserted fathers speak for kids’ rights
Spend time with those at Mother Teresa Home

 Chandigarh, June 19
Child Rights Initiative for Share Parenting (CRISP) in association with the Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), whose members happens to be deserted fathers and elderly citizens got together and shared their love and affection with the mentally challenged children at Mother Teresa Home, Sector 23, on the occasion of Father’s Day, here, today.

Though, the members offered to adopt children, but the authorities refused to oblize them. However, they were allowed to spend some time with the children. The members of the organisation are now in favour single parenting. Here in our country the system and society at large is still based on a patriarchal mindset which considers fathers incapable of nurturing children which is incorrect. Men are as capable as women to be caregivers and bring up children in a normal way. Even if the woman (mother) assumes that the man is not a good husband, it is out of place to say he is not also a good father for the children until there is strong evidence against him, said Arun Kumar, a deserted father, who till now have not seen his son, who is one-and-a-half-year old.

There is no law requiring a normal father to keep away from his child, during divorce proceedings. The child has the unquestionable right to acquire love and care from both father and the mother, said Vikas Kapur, coordinator of the organisation.

It is an NGO and was formed in 2008 at Bangalore. It speaks up for the rights of the children to remain connected with and enjoy the love of both natural parents being divorced or separated. At first, it takes almost a year or two to get the rights to visit, which is again just a formality. The father is given an hour or two to spend with his child, which ultimately is of no use, said Tejinder Singh, a member from Rajpura, who came to seek some love at Mother Teresa Home.

Ramandeep of Chandigarh narrates the same story. I have been granted permission to meet my daughter every third Sunday of month and I have not been allowed to her to my home for the past several years, he said.

Kids from broken families are: 14 times more likely to commit rape 5 times more likely to commit suicide 20 times more likely to end up in prison 10 times more likely to take drugs 32 times more likely to run away from home 20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders 9 times more likely to drop out of school 9 times more likely to end up in a state operated institution

Divorced fathers crave for shared parenting

Mon, 21 June 2010

This Father’s Day, divorced men are seeking their due. An NGO with more than 2,500 members across the country has taken up their cause, saying shared parenting and joint custody of children should be implemented as a rule in divorce or separation cases. Bangalore-based Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (Crisp) points out that children have a right to remain connected to both parents after a divorce.
“On Father’s Day, we demand the basic rights of children to access both biological parents. For this, there is a need for implementing shared parenting and joint custody as a rule in separation and divorce cases,” Crisp founder President Kumar V Jahgirdar, who was visiting Shimla, said.
“Our laws are wife-centric — from the custody of children for divorced couples to allegations of domestic violence to dowry harassment. We are demanding the setting up of special guardian courts in major cities,” he said.
Crisp with its regional chapters in Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Lucknow has been fighting to constitute a separate ministry for the welfare of children who face problems after the divorce of their parents.
“Since 40 per cent of the country’s population is children, our demand to bifurcate the union women and child development ministry is genuine,” said Jahgirdar, who is fighting for shared parenting of his daughter with his ex-wife. Shiva Kumar, a divorced software engineer, said: “Despite a court’s order, my wife is not allowing me to meet my 11-year-old son. For more than five years, I have not seen him.”
He blamed the centuries-old laws that are exploited by married women and their families. “We want laws that stop the creation of a fatherless society,” he said.
S P Sidhu, a leading lawyer based in Chandigarh, said: “As per law, a child below the age of five always remains in the custody of the mother and the father doesn’t have the right to bring him or her up.
“Even if the child is more than five years old, the court generally favours the mother for custody. However, only in exceptional cases the court gives custody to a father, that too after he convinces the court that the mother is not taking care of the child well,” he said. “We have even come across cases where the mother discourages the child to meet the father even after he has won the right to meet the child,” Sidhu added.
Nitin Gupta, Secretary of the Chandigarh Crisp chapter, said parental alienation often occurs when one parent gets children estranged from the other parent for personal vendetta.
“We have seen that the child is brainwashed by the dominant parent against the non-custodial parent, usually the father. This brings a lot of mental distress and trauma not only to the child and but also to the alienated parent,” Gupta said.
Jahgirdar said the Indian legal system and society at large is still based on a patriarchal mindset which considers fathers incapable of nurturing children. “This is totally incorrect. Men are as capable as women to be caregivers and bring up children in a normal way,” he said.
“We are trying to impress upon the government to allow shared parenting like allowing the children to stay with their father on vacations or weekends,” he said.
According to the data available with Crisp, over 15,000 divorce cases are pending in Bangalore alone. The figure was collected from family courts.

Divorced fathers crave for shared parenting (June 20 is Father’s Day)

http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20100620/836/tbs-divorced-fathers-crave-for-shared-pa_1.html

Sun, Jun 20 12:04 PM

Shimla, June 20 (IANS) This Father’s Day, divorced men are seeking their due. An NGO with more than 2,500 members across the country has taken up their cause, saying shared parenting and joint custody of children should be implemented as a rule in divorce or separation cases.

Bangalore-based Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP) points out that children have a right to remain connected to both parents after a divorce.

‘On Father’s Day, we demand the basic rights of children to access both biological parents. For this, there is a need for implementing shared parenting and joint custody as a rule in separation and divorce cases,’ CRISP founder president Kumar V. Jahgirdar, who was visiting Shimla, told IANS.

‘Our laws are wife-centric – from the custody of children for divorced couples to allegations of domestic violence to dowry harassment. We are demanding the setting up of special guardian courts in major cities,’ he said.

CRISP with its regional chapters in Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Lucknow has been fighting to constitute a separate ministry for the welfare of children who face problems after the divorce of their parents.

‘Since 40 percent of the country’s population is children, our demand to bifurcate the union women and child development ministry is genuine,’ said Jahgirdar, who is fighting for shared parenting of his daughter with his ex-wife.

Shiva Kumar, a divorced software engineer, said: ‘Despite a court’s order, my wife is not allowing me to meet my 11-year-old son. For more than five years, I have not seen him.’

He blamed the centuries-old laws that are exploited by married women and their families. ‘We want laws that stop the creation of a fatherless society,’ he said.

S.P. Sidhu, a leading lawyer based in Chandigarh, said: ‘As per law, a child below the age of five always remains in the custody of the mother and the father doesn’t have the right bring him or her up.

‘Even if the child is more than five years old, the court generally favours the mother for custody. However, only in exceptional cases the court gives custody to a father, that too after he convinces the court that the mother is not taking care of the child well,’ he said.

‘We have even come across cases where the mother discourages the child to meet the father even after he has won the right to meet the child,’ Sidhu added.

Nitin Gupta, secretary of the Chandigarh CRISP chapter, said parental alienation often occurs when one parent gets children estranged from the other parent for personal vendetta.

‘We have seen that the child is brainwashed by the dominant parent against the non-custodial parent, usually the father. This brings a lot of mental distress and trauma not only to the child and but also to the alienated parent,’ Gupta said.

Jahgirdar said the Indian legal system and society at large is still based on a patriarchal mindset which considers fathers incapable of nurturing children.

‘This is totally incorrect. Men are as capable as women to be caregivers and bring up children in a normal way,’ he said.

‘We are trying to impress upon the government to allow shared parenting like allowing the children to stay with their father on vacations or weekends,’ he said.

According to the data available with CRISP, over 15,000 divorce cases are pending in Bangalore alone. The figure was collected from family courts.