'Harassed' husbands to attend two-day meet in Shimla

Hundreds of 'harassed' husbands from across the country would be assembling here for a two-day meet starting tomorrow to demand rationalisation of Dowry Act and grant of custody of children in cases of divorce which they complained are +lopsided+ in favour of woman.
    
President of Bangalore based NGO Children Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP), Kumar V Jahgirdar said, "Over 200 tormented husbands from places like Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Chandigarh besides Himachal Pradesh would attend the meet to chalk out strategies to fight for men's rights."

Several NGOs are working for rights of harried husbands also be present, he said and added that he started his NGO two years back. He alleged that Dowry Act and majority cases of custody of children in the event of divorce are women-centric.

"The women take advantage of this and are indeed harassing husbands, who suffer silently for fear of insult," Jahgirdar said and added that in most of the cases of domestic violence these days males are the victims and the police do not register their complaint. He said, "We would give a memorandum to Union Law minister Veerapa Moily seeking to make laws pertaining to marital discord gender neutral."
    
This is second meet of its kind. A similar event was organised last year at Goa, he claimed.