Ahead of the Father’s Day on Sunday, Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP) organised a rally to demand equal parenting rights for fathers, in the case of a divorce.
Members of the organisation and children from Sumangali Seva Ashrama orphanage in R T Nagar participated in the campaign outside the Town Hall. They raised slogans about giving joint custody of children to divorced couples.
Kumar V Jahgirdar, founder and president of CRISP, said, “There are many fathers who do not get to spend this day with their children because only a single parent has been given the rights over the child.” They celebrated Father’s Day with children from the orphanage who do not have fathers. The children took part in drawing and essay-writing competitions and they received gifts from the ‘fathers’ at the event.
Through the rally, CRISP wants to emphasise that the bond between the child and a father is just as important as the bond with the mother.
“In some cases, courts do give a joint custody but it is only on a merit-basis. We want joint custody to be the norm, as in foreign countries, except in cases where there is a strong reason against it,” Jahgirdar said.
Even several mothers demanding joint custody over their children took part in the rally. The organisation cited ill-effects of separating children from the father and demanded that the recommendations of the Law Commission of India on custody laws be implemented.
Published 17 June 2017, 20:31 IST