India: Candle Light March for Fathers' Rights

Article here. Excerpt:

'Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF) and Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP), NGOs working towards the cause of Family Harmony, Gender Equality and Child Rights announces a “Candle Light March” in condolescence of the unfortunate demise of Mr. Syed Makhdoom, who committed suicide on 5th April 2009 after he was no longer able to bear the domestic violence being done on him by his wife and in-laws as they trapped him in false dowry harassment cases and separated him from his child. His suicide came to light on the 9th April 2009 after his landlord grew suspicious.

In a bone-chilling, 8 minute video that he recorded of himself on his mobile, minutes before he committed suicide, Syed Makhdoom expressed the pain that he underwent in an insensitive society and before an insensitive judiciary that trivialized his pain, never understood a father’s feelings and did not grant him visitation to his child which is the natural and biological right of both the child and the father.

Syed Makhdoom’s case is not a one off case. Every year 57,000 married men are committing suicides, unable to bear the torture meted out on them by their wives and in-laws. In the year 2007, 57593 married men committed suicide. Similar figures for the years 2006 and 2005 are 55452 and 52000 respectively as per National Crime Records Bureau. Since 1996 suicide rates have shot up by 40%. Every year the suicide rate is going up by 4% whereas population grows at the rate of 1%. 4 times more men are committing suicides than they are born. Compared to women, the suicide of married men is 1.86 times and grows at 6 times the rate of growth of married women’s suicides.'