It was a bright April morning. He kissed his three week old son and his darling wife good bye, took his car keys and dashed off down the stairs from his second floor apartment. Few minutes into his drive, he realized that he had left his wallet at home. He returned home pronto, parked the car on the street, and climbed the stairs. He found the door ajar, stopped upon hearing his wife’s voice and realized she was speaking over the phone about him and the child. Without betraying his emotions, he entered the house. His wife hung up the phone. He picked up his wallet, and right before leaving, he took a good look at the infant. A few weeks later, his worst fears came true when he received the results of the DNA Paternity Test. He is not the child’s biological father!

This is just one of the many cases of Paternity Fraud happening all over the world. In the United States and Australia, statistics indicate that about 30% of the alleged fathers tested for paternity were proved to be non-fathers. More recently, a similar study in China indicated that the numbers were no different in China, and that about 30% of the fathers tested for biological paternity in China proved to be non-fathers. No such study is known to have been conducted in India so far. However, there is no reason to believe that numbers would be any different in India.

In spite of the serious consequences of adultery and paternity fraud, our archaic laws still treat women who commit adultery and paternity fraud as innocent victims. Many non-biological fathers are forced into accepting another man’s children as their own, and required to fulfill all the responsibilities of a biological father.

Under Indian Penal Code section 497, a man committing adultery with a married woman is punishable with five years of imprisonment. However, an adulterous woman cannot be charged under the section. When the Malimath committee made the recommendation that a man and woman be made equally liable in cases of adultery, the National Commission for Women (NCW), under the stewardship of the radical feminist Girija Vyas, raised a hue and cry rejecting that recommendation. For NCW, a woman is always a “victim of her circumstances” and it is wrong to “blame the victim”.

Under Section 112 of the Indian Evidence Act, children borne by a married woman are considered the legitimate children of the husband unless the husband can prove non-access to the wife during the period of conception. This provision ensures ample opportunity to the married woman to commit paternity fraud and take cover under section 112 of Indian Evidence Act.

Feminist outfits like the NCW, Ministry for Women and Child Development and Lawyers Collective behave like the proverbial ostriches and pretend as if the problem is non-existent. The lawmakers are hesitant to make any changes in section 112 of the Indian Evidence Act for the fear of tainting the infallible image of the “sacred Indian woman.”

Not content with ensuring protection for adulterous women from penal consequences, the shameless feminist outfits, spearheaded by the NCW and Girija Vyas made further recommendations that maintenance under the criminal section 125 CrPC not be denied to women who indulge in adultery.

In summary, the feminist fraud lies in -

• cherry picking the laws and amendments that favor women and simultaneously disempower men.
• remaining silent on archaic laws, such as the presumption of paternity under Section 112 of the Indian Evidence Act which have no relevance in the present world where paternity can be conclusively established through DNA testing.

So, the next time you hear of any amendments to the existing laws or proposals for new ones emanating from the feminist mouthpieces such as the NCW or Lawyers Collective, be they relating to adultery, maintenance, rape, sexual harassment, divorce or child custody; please pay close attention – you will see the feminist fraud in all its nakedness.