RECENTLY A group of citizens, who are concerned over the serious effects of 'parental alienation' on children due to single parent families on account of divorce or separation got together to take up cudgels for their welfare.

The organisation, CRISP, focuses on the rights of a child to remain connected with both parents in case parents get divorced.

Research findings worldwide indicate that children do best when both parents are actively involved in their lives, even after separation or divorce. Conflict between parents gets reduced and the mental and emotional health of children improves, when divorcing parents can be assured of equal and meaningful contact with their children.

Experts say that parents contemplating divorce should be given manadatory counselling on 'shared parenting' and its benefits by a panel of experts supervised by the family court. This will eliminate unnecessary child custody battles and stress to both the parents and the children.

Parental alienation occurs, when one parent disallows the other parent from communicating with their children for personal vendetta. The dominant parent then brainwashes the child against the other parent, assuring the child that it is alright to ignore the other parent. This brings a lot mental distress and trauma to the child and the alienated parent.

Indian legal system is still based on a mindset which considers fathers as not capable of nurturing the children. However, today many fathers are competent of taking care of the needs of the children for normal upbringing. When women can multitask by going to work, doing domestic chores and also take care of children, it is baseless to say that men/fathers are not capable of taking care of children. With rise in number of working parents in nuclear family setup, the father's involvement in raising the children is a must. Otherwise, the child is simply left at the mercy of servants and strangers in day care centers.

The mindsets in Indian legal system has to change by taking account of the current social situation. Shared parenting is recognised in many western countries.

Studies have shown that children who go through their parents' divorce have:

• more conduct problems,
• symptoms of psychological maladjustment,
• lower academic achievement,
• social difficulties and problematic relationships with both parents.

To make matters worse, many parents often influence their children to choose one parent over the other and this is often traumatic for the child and this cruelty on the child has to be stopped.

Strengthen Fatherhood and Families:

Since 1960, the number of American children without fathers in their lives has quadrupled, from 6 million to more than 24 million. Children without fathers in their lives are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime, nine times more likely to drop out of school, and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. As the proverb goes, “One father is better than 100 teachers."

In United States of America, statistics reported tells that children from fatherless homes are:

• Five times more likely to commit suicide
• 32 times more likely to run away from home.
• 20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders
• 14 times more likely to commit rape.
• Nine times more likely to drop out of high school.
• 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances (become drug addicts)
• Nine times more likely to end up in a state-operated institution
• 20 times more likely to end up in prison.
• Three million teenage girls have sexually transmitted diseases
• At least one out of four teenagers (between 14years to 19years) suffers from sexually transmitted diseases.

It is important for all citizens of the nation to wake up to stop a future social catastrophe as it has happened in western countries. We have to learn from the social experiments in America and Europe and stop repeating the mistakes western countries did in last 30 years.

As custody battles between parents increase, counseling of separating or divorced parents can have a positive effect on the overall development of the child.

CRISP activists believe that 'interparental child abduction' is child abuse. Often one parent takes the child to another country without the permission of the other parents or the courts. It is known as parental abduction and is a criminal act under international laws, including Hague Convention.

The grandparents too should have rights and access to their grandchildren. The gender bias should be eliminated from family law and from future legislation since one party usually uses gender biased laws to wreak vengeance on the non-custodial parent.

The other demands of the CRISP activists are:

• Single mothers should be given mandatory counseling to increase involvement of biological father in the child's life.
• Existing visitation schedules to increase and enhance the role of  'non-custodial parents' in the best interest of the child.
• Reforms in the existing child custody laws, practices for equal parenting sensitised to consider child's wish.
• 50 per cent of the custody to be given to the fathers.
• Government must allocate funds for conducting research on the adverse impact on fatherless children.

Creating a ministry for children by separating the existing Women and Child (WCD) ministry. A separate union minister for children must be appointed.