Men of Chennai suffering broken marriages have just got a boost. Child Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP), a non-government organization working to ensure more rights to fathers over children, launched its city chapter on Thursday.

About two lakh children are affected every year by broken marriages and are raised by single parents, according to the Bangalore based NGO’s estimate.

Kumar Jahgirdar, the president of the organization, argues that a child-centric approach must be adopted for child custody. Custody matters should not be mixed up with allegations, by the couple, against each other, he says.

“Children have rights to their fathers also. However, now the judiciary is biased in favour of women,” he says.

This bias in favour of women keeps children away from their fathers, he says. “In cities, five out of two - or 40 per cent - of marriages end in divorce.

Judicial processes are slow and it takes five years even to get visitation rights.

Even then it is for one hour in a month, something like a TV serial,” says Jahgirdar.

“Moreover, the judiciary has a patriarchal attitude, which assumes that the job of the man is to earn and that of the woman is to raise the child. This leads to a bias in favour of women,” he says.