Child Rights for Shared Parenting (CRISP), a City-based organisation advocating the concept of shared parenting, on Thursday said persons who misuse the Dowry Act and Domestic Violence Act to deprive the father of access to his child should be punished.

Briefing mediapersons here, Kumar Jahgirdar, President, CRISP, said the organisation would demand family law reforms and seek to highlight the grievances of fathers' deprived of children's access due to "biased laws and failure of the system."

He also announced that a national Father's Day rally will be taken out on June 20 by members of CRISP.

He said the divorce rates in the country were going up substantially with more than 13,000 cases in the family courts of Bangalore alone, pending disposal. CRISP was concerned over the growing custody battles between parents and their ill-effects on children due to separation, he noted.

Serious disorders

Serious disorders like Parental Alienation Syndrome (wherein one parent out of revenge against the other parent, deprives the child of love and affection of the other parent) and reactive associative disorders warp a child's development and also in some cases leading to criminal tendencies, he said.

The various demands put forth by CRISP included granting equal access to the separated parent who are keen to take care of their child.