Expand the law, reduce the trauma

The institution of marriage is rapidly changing in India. Two consecutive Supreme Court statements this week.

The institution of marriage is rapidly changing in India. Two consecutive Supreme Court statements this week, regarding the grounds for allowing divorce, reflect the increased awareness among couples, especially women, about their conjugal rights. The apex court, while asking the central government to amend the Hindu Marriage Act, 1956, to include ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’ as a ground for divorce, had earlier also decided that abstinence constituted mental cruelty towards a spouse, and thus was valid ground for the dissolution of a marriage. In a country where marital violence is rampant, divorce still attached with social stigma and the woman inevitably made to carry the burden of guilt over the breakdown of a marriage, the court’s orders may just arm women with the resolve to fight for their rights and independence.

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Though this country has lagged behind miserably in checking marital crimes against women that include abandonment, violence and bigamy, it cannot be said that laws regarding these have been unfair towards women. On the contrary, marital laws have almost always taken the side of the woman, whether it be on the issue of cruelty, desertion, adultery or bigamy. The problem lies in a social conditioning, where women are made to feel that they need to be dependent on a male, and where both men and women perversely believe that violence against women is alright.

A series of recent initiatives by the Supreme Court will help tremendously in changing this discomforting mindset. Just last month, the apex court had ordered the Centre and the state governments to ensure that registration of marriages be made compulsory, regardless of religion. The reasoning behind this move was that, with proof of marriage in hand, women would find it easier to seek redressal in case of desertion and bigamy. The Supreme Court has moved with the times in widening the grounds for allowing the dissolution of marriages. It has thrown into knots the myth that a marriage is a ‘sacred’ institution that must not be broken.