Press Release

All India Men’s Welfare Association (AIMWA) is an organization formed to protect the Constitutional and Human Rights of men and boys. We fight against gender discrimination, legal terrorism and every other form of abuse suffered by men and boys.

AIMWA is organizing a Nationwide Boycott of the Family Courts on 18 June 2010 – the Friday before Fathers’ Day – as a sign of protest against the Family Court system which blatantly discriminates against fathers, heartlessly separates them from and prevents their access to their own biological children.

We concur with the recent observation of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India that “the Hindu Marriage Act is breaking more families than uniting”. We would like to add that the worst sufferers of the Indian Family Court system are fathers and children.

Indian Family Courts have declared a war against fathers and are adopting every possible means to create a “Fatherless Society”. The modus operandi of the Family Courts includes:

• Depriving fathers of the right to love and care for their biological children.
• Forcing fathers to pay huge sums of money to support children they are not allowed to see.
• Encouraging false allegations of abuse to paint fathers as unfit parents.
• Permitting multiple legal battles by mothers to eliminate biological fathers from their children’s lives.
• Passing ex-parte orders based solely on the allegations made by a child’s mother.
• Allowing mothers to brazenly disobey visitation orders without legal repercussions to her.
• 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.

It is time everyone recognizes that:

• denying access to one’s own biological children is abuse of human rights.
• depriving children of the love and care of their biological father is abuse of children’s rights.

AIMWA hereby registers its vehement protest against the separation of fathers from their biological children, and the concomitant violation of Human Rights perpetrated by the Family Court system against fathers and children.

AIMWA shall continue to agitate against the Family Court system until the following demands are met:

1. Special fast-track courts should be set up at the earliest to deal with custody issues.
2. Exclusive, fully functioning Divisional Bench should be set up in all High Courts and Supreme Court to hear appeals in matters of child custody.
3. When a person or couple approaches court for divorce, counseling of the parents by professional counselors should be given first priority.
4. 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.
5. Both parents should be given financial responsibility of the child proportionate to their earnings and not based on demands made by either partner.
6. 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.
7. 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.

Boycott Family Courts!

AIMWA hereby calls upon all fathers to:

• Join our Nationwide Boycott of Family Courts on 18 June 2010 as a symbol of protest against the creation of a fatherless society!
• Sign our Petition listing out the changes we demand from the Family Court system in child custody matters!
• Refuse to pay maintenance and child support unless the aforementioned demands are met!
• Settle for nothing less than free and fair access to their children and an equal opportunity to build a meaningful relationship with their children!

Anyone who had a brush with the family court system in India knows the following general rules of thumb:

• A woman will get divorce on demand irrespective of the veracity of her claims or what the man wants.
• A man seeking divorce must survive 6 to 15 years of trial (by fire) knowing well that the odds are stacked against him.
• A woman will get maintenance from her husband, no questions asked.
• A mother will get full child custody irrespective of what the father or the child wants.
• A father must pay child support many times beyond his capacity even if he never gets to see his child.

In short, a man is a walking ATM-cum-sperm dispenser.

Most people know what it is to be robbed of their hard-earned money but one must be really damned to suffer the pain of being robbed of one’s babies or of fatherly love.

Family courts have developed an entire menu of ways to prevent fathers from being a part of their children’s life and vice versa. These range from preventing physical proximity and hindering even precious few telephone conversations, all the way to breaking the man’s spirit but leaving him with enough desperation and frustration to commit suicide.

Even in the few cases where family courts show generosity in granting fathers the rights to visitation and telephonic contact with children, the courts are quite liberal with mothers who violate these rights.
It is surely no surprise that way more divorced men end their lives than divorced women.

One can say with confidence that feminists have successfully “sensitized” (read bullied) the family court system to be “committed to the cause of women” and to stretch to any lengths for the “cause of women” (read wives), even if it is to the detriment of the rest of the family members.

While we may never plumb the depths of feminist ideas, or confront them without holy water or some such thing, we do know this – Feminists want women to be free of marriage, family, motherhood and anything that involves compromise. Destroying marriage and family, treating children as a by-product of woman’s right to sexual expression, and rearing children with the State as the father is the formula for “true equality”.

Of course, the above formula requires you to assume that “the cause of women” equals “the best interest of children”. Make that one assumption and we’re all good.

Forget about all the scientists crying hoarse about how the lack of a male parent affects the normal growth and development of children, apart from all the social ills these children are likely to face and cause.
Ignore the fact that most violence against children after divorce is committed by their mothers, in large part due to depression and substance abuse.

Turn a deaf ear to what the children may really want, and a blind eye to the other progenitor, the male with nothing but love and longing for his offspring.

Agreed! Rights of non-custodial fathers and their estranged children are but hurdles along the way to a feminist utopia, which is paved by the family courts, but guess who’s footing the bill for the trip. Not just the non-custodial fathers but tax payers like you and me too.

As the feminist juggernaut bulldozes the family justice system leaving behind glaring biases, broken marriages, shattered families and battered souls in its trail, we are not far from reaching a fatherless feminist utopia with few resources and severely damaged children unable to grow into healthy adulthood.

Those who want the juggernaut to stop, speak now or forever hold your heads in despair!