“Fathers’ Rights” in India – Time to break the judicial prejudices
Talking about “Fathers’ Rights” in India raises lot of surprised eyebrows as people are completely oblivious of such a term existing in our social system. However with the rampant increase in no. of divorces/separations in India there is an importunate need to not only spread awareness about this ‘not-so-talked-about’ subject but also urge the Indian Judicial system to come out of the age long prejudices of granting dictatorial parenting rights to mothers over fathers. Today fathers play an equally important role in the upbringing of children and their importance in no way can be relegated by the matrimonial discords between the couples. The onus lies on judiciary to adopt a fair & impartial approach while passing the custody/visitation orders so parity can be established in what otherwise is a highly biased domain
It’s a fact that Indian society is undergoing lot of change wherein the orthodox schools of thoughts and longstanding customs are being challenged. The conventional approach towards family wherein wives served as home-makers & held primary responsibility to look after children and husbands served as sole ‘bread winners’ has also been confronted. Men are contributing in household chores and women have started taking up occupations. This change is rubbing on parenting model as well wherein fathers are now playing larger roles in raising their children right from the time their wives are expecting till the child grows up as an accomplished individual accepted by the society. Apart from playing the customary role of a protector, fathers have taken up a variety of responsibilities which includes choosing right avenues for child’s education, contribute in their learning and teach them to deal with complex problems, take care of their nutrition and inculcate discipline in them. Importance of fatherhood is being realized by modern day employers as well with most organizations granting paternal leaves to their male employees as they believe fathers need to be around during child birth
Matrimonial discords are on the rise and with that the role of judiciary becomes utmost important to ensure that “Fathers’ Rights” are not compromised. The discriminatory nature of Indian Judicial system has always endorsed custody of children to estranged wives and at the same time shunned fathers from even meeting with them. Wives have used this biasness to effect legal confiscation of children. They are extensively being used as a weapon to extort money from the fathers in the name of maintenance and any visitation/custody requests from father’s side are strongly opposed. Any rare court orders permitting the fathers to meet with their children are not adhered by the wives & on a larger scale criticized by the feminist organizations. Moreover the wives resort to planting all kinds of negative thoughts in children’s mind so they voluntarily withdraw from meeting their fathers. Their only motive is to seek personal revenge and win the dirty self-initiated battle against the husband, and in order to do so they use children as a tool without realizing the lethal repercussions this could have on the child.
Increasing number of children caught in the legal feuds initiated by egoist and selfish women are being deprived of their fathers. They are denied father’s love (which is irreplaceable) and lose their first ever ‘hero’ in life who they could look upon & aspire to impersonate. They could be mocked by other children of same age group and develop inferiority complex making them vulnerable to social & emotional embarrassment. Absence of father leads to a sense of non-belongingness among them. Moreover the negative tutoring by wives wreck their subtle & innocent mind thereby jeopardizing their overall growth and increasing plausibility of them developing personality disorders
Importance of father in a child’s life has to be aptly recognized. Keeping the child away from the father is a form of child abuse and the Indian judicial system should take cognizance of this fact while deciding the custody/visitation appeals. Courts should not succumb to the deluding pressure created by the feminist groups & think of the best interest of the child while passing judgments. They should also empathize with the pain & emotional distress fathers have to undergo while they are forbidden access to their children. A marriage that did not work should not be a factor to deny the child his father’s love. It’s high time that prejudices are broken and Fathers are conferred what they deserve – an equal parenting right.