of case rose by 150% and conviction rate fell by 400%. Maneka Gandhi, the Minister for Women & Child Development, has also opposed any changes to the existing dowry laws. Ranjana Kumari of the Centre for Social Research has also expressed disagreement over demands to amend the anti-dowry law, pointing out that dowry deaths are still occurring in India. Divorce and child custody laws The men's rights activists in India claim that the divorce and child custody laws are biased against men. They say that this allows divorced wives to stop men from seeing their children for long periods of time. They have said that alimony should not be granted if the wife is the primary earner of the family and the law should see men capable of bringing up children. In India, child custody is granted to the father only if the mother is mentally unstable or has left home leaving behind the child. At present, the matter custody in case of divorce is governed by two laws: Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 and Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956. But, both laws do not have any provisions for shared parenting or joint custody. Under the Evidence Act, 1872, if a child is born within a marriage or within 280 days of dissolution of a marriage, then the child is considered legitimate and is entitled to child support and inheritance. At present, DNA paternity tests do not take precedence over this law. The courts may still choose to ignore the genetic evidence and ask a non-biological parent to pay for child support. An organisation named Children's Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP) has demanded better child access laws and has called the current custodial laws gender-biased. It has demanded amendments to the Guardians and Wards Act be amended to make shared parenting mandatory. Swarup Sarkar of Save Family Foundation has speculated that now two out of three Indian couples actively share parenting. Kumar Jahagirdar, president of CRISP, has noted a growth in men who are the primary caregivers in the family. Notable verdicts In April 2003, the Supreme Court of India granted a woman divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty. She had claimed that her husband was harassing her and accusing her of affairs. Although four or five out of ten divorce cases in India allege mental agony, Ram Prakash Chugh said that if a man brought similar