With over 20,000 matrimonial cases pending before the Family Courts in the state and the number of these cases increasing by almost 30 percent every year, the members of Children’s Rights Initiative For Shared Parenting (CRISP), an NGO, dedicated to the cause of child rights and parenting, staged a demonstration at the Town Hall on Saturday, to mark Father’s Day.
This is the fifth year in a row that men who have lost the love of their children due to a case of divorce came out in protest at Town Hall. “We are demanding that family laws should be amended in the best interest of the society and also to ensure gender neutral laws making joint custody of a minor child mandatory when the parents are separated due to divorce. We want to ensure that fathers also participate equally in the upbringing and welfare of the child,” President of CRISP Kumar Jahgirdar said.
“There has to be a separate ministry for children. There is no proper representation in Parliament for Children’s Rights. Many in the ministry use women power to get votes. There is nothing that is being done for children and no security is being provided for them. Children are the assets of our nation,” Jahgirdar observed.
“India is a signatory of the United Nations convention and as per the UN child rights rules, children should have contact with both parents. But India is not following this,” the protesters alleged.