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India moves to ease divorce law
Washington Post - June 23, 2010
Emily Wax, Chennai – Even in India's most traditional cities, a powerful new profession has arrived: the divorce lawyer.
Divorce rates are rising in India as the fast-growing economy unleashes unprecedented financial freedoms and mobility, especially among women and young city dwellers. But divorce cases often drag on for years, clogging already clogged courts and causing painful and even violent family disputes.
This month the government proposed a law that would make it easier for couples to get divorced based on the "irretrievable breakdown" of the marriage or "incompatibility". In most cases courts grant divorces only when there is mutual consent or proof of abuse or adultery. Proving those allegations is often so fraught with drama that tabloid newspapers regularly feature the fights in print.
The latest amendments will need parliament's approval before they become law. A similar move was abandoned in 1981 after huge resistance to the change. This time, however, many are hailing the amendments as a way of catching up to social realities.
About 75 per cent of India's population is younger than 35. And more middle- and working-class women are carving out new identities as they become economically independent. Some divorce experts say urban women are driving the change in divorce law.
Divorce has long been stigmatised in India, while marriage is a cornerstone of culture, linking families and businesses and seen by older generations as an essential duty.
"But aspirations are growing, and women are not as tolerant of cheating or feeling unhappy in an arranged or 'love' marriage that maybe they were unsure of," said Bharani Dharan, co-founder of the matchmaking website SecondShaadi.com, which is targeting divorcees and widows. "Shaadi" is the Hindi word for marriage.
The trend is evident in new matrimonial columns in newspapers that help divorcees find new partners, something unheard of 20 years ago. Experts say about 11 Indian marriages in 1000 end in divorce. The rate in Australia is about 300 in 1000.
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