Why are Divorces on a rise in India?

Divorce is now no less than an epidemic in India as several surveys suggest that the figure of divorce rates have gone up to thirteen times in the past decade. The number of seperations taking place in Non Muslim communities has taken alarming proportions. The India Census in 2011 revealed that 5.5 in 1000 Hindu couples tend to get seperated, including a large number of cases of wives being abandoned by husbands, among them being the case of Jashodaben Modi, the wife of the Indian PM.

The total number of seperation and divorce cases in Hindu couples go up 7.3 for every 1000 marriages which includes the legal divorces and unofficial seperations. Muslim communities also have a high rate of divorce at 5.63 divorces for every 1000 marriages however Muslim communities do not have the problem of unofficial seperation and abandonment due to the Islamic law that allow couples to legally seperate through Talaq. Unlike Muslim law, the Hindu tradition does not has any law that allows married couples to legally seperate therefore the high number of abandonments.

As the spike in divorce is directly related to the deterioration of society, it is important to study and analyse what causes separation among the young couples so that proper efforts can be directed to reverse the trend.

November 2016 CE