Fathers dropping out in little one visitation battles, says report

A primary-of-its-kind report on little one visitation rights for estranged fathers highlights the absence of balanced shared parenting legal guidelines in India and the pressing want for reforms.

The report by NGO Ekam Nyaay Foundation warns that fathers throughout India face extended separations from their kids, bias in custody choices, non-compliance with court-ordered visitation, false authorized instances, and emotional misery brought on by alienation ways.

Based on responses from 108 fathers throughout the nation, the research reveals that just about three out of 4 fathers who approached courts searching for visitation rights had been denied the chance to see their very own kids.

It notes that fathers are “grappling with vital authorized and social hurdles, usually fearing court docket proceedings and, at instances, being misguided about their accessible authorized choices”.

The survey was carried out within the aftermath of the December 2024 suicide case of software program engineer Atul Subhash, who in an in depth suicide observe and a video accused his estranged spouse and her in-laws of harassment and pressuring him for giant sums of cash to settle authorized fits, and visitation rights along with his four-year-old son.

A key focus of the report is on Section 6 of The Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956, which grants automated custody of kids beneath 5 years to the mom.

Questioning the Section of the regulation, the report said: “Once the custody is granted in favour of mom, the daddy spends years of his life operating from courts to courts. Meanwhile, the nascent years of the kid’s infancy is misplaced. Resultantly, the kid grows up in absence of the daddy defeating the complete idea of custody petition of the daddy.”

The report warns that separation of kids beneath the age of 5 years from their fathers “starkly reduces the potential for constructing a wholesome relationship between the kid and the alienated father”.

According to the survey, 48.2% of respondents had utilized for little one visitation rights in court docket. “It has been noticed in private interactions with respondents that fathers are continuously suggested in opposition to submitting for visitation rights,” the report stated, noting that such recommendation usually stems from fears of retaliatory authorized motion by estranged spouses.

Even amongst those that did method the courts, success was uncommon. Out of 52 fathers who utilized for visitation, solely 13 had been granted rights.

“Denial of visitation rights blocks out one mum or dad from the life of a kid thereby inflicting distance, which turns into troublesome to bridge later, in case entry is restored,” the report famous.

Even amongst the few fathers who had been granted weekly visitation rights, the court docket orders are sometimes ignored by the moms, the report stated.

Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj, director, Ekam Nyaay Foundation, stated the Atul Subhash case introduced public consideration to the emotional toll on fathers being denied entry to their kids.

“Lakhs of fathers in India are being disadvantaged of affection of their very own little one due to alienation by the custodial mum or dad. This analysis brings forth the plight of fathers struggling due to parental alienation,” she stated, urging the judiciary that “courts should undertake shared parenting to do justice to fathers”.