THE BREAKING KNOTS

Dowry complaints pour and divorce cases doubles
While the institution of marriage has always been sacred to Indian family system the alarming rate of divorces and complaints of dowry demands have become major threat to Indian society in the changing social system.
The younger generation in their quest to seek independence is today breaking the mold and is becoming more intolerant to their partners. Many unhappy couples are now breaking the relationships biding farewell to social pressure of pulling on just for the sake of family honour and society.

Abusive relationships are one key reason for many splits, where a partner feels enough is enough. Violent and abusive partners are no longer being tolerated. Moreover, the families of the women are also becoming more aware. A large section of Indian women have become physically and financially self dependent where sexual relationship is also becoming a determining factor for happy married life.
Conversely, many unhappy Indian men are divorcing women due to stress, tension and different pressures. Extra-marital affairs and communication gaps also play a role in creating a chasm in married life.

The two views seemed to be rather divergent, coming from two strong-minded career women who have made a name for themselves in their respective fields.

Counselors are of the opinion that intolerance is one of the reasons for the rising number of divorce cases in the city. Working partners do not find enough time to spend together and the connection that binds two people together is often missing.

Many times couples seek divorce on flimsy grounds, which again is symptomatic of a lack of deeper understanding. Breakdown of the social fabric is also a culprit. Earlier, there were people in the family who were there to iron out any differences or friction between the partners. “Financial independence could be one of the factors but it does not mean that you lose your family life in the process”, opines a district court lawyer. Moreover, the day the Indian woman walked out of the home and into the workplace, everything changed — the dynamics of traditional family life and the position of women in our society. Divorce is still an urban phenomenon and has to do with expectations — women are not prepared to settle for less. With money comes assertiveness in marriage and true independence as well. The change in our society is based on the economic realities of a double family income.

An increasing trend of ex-parte divorces taking place in far off villages takes females completely unaware as the unscrupulous partner discover an easy route to get rid of an illiterate partner.

These unfortunate partners do not even get a summons from the court before they get the divorce order. An ex-parte divorce is a one-sided case where the judge passes the ruling if the other party does not appear twice in the court.


On an average around 1 marriage out of 100 marriages ends up into divorce in India. The divorce rate in India is quite low in the villages in India as compared to urban India. These days divorce rate among urban population is increasing day by day.


The latest figures collected from the courts in Delhi indicate a disturbing trend. Of the 50 petitions being filed everyday almost half relate to people from rural backgrounds where the groom takes dowry and after sometime files a divorce case on the unsuspecting bride.

Divorce cases are on an upswing and such ex-parte cases are adding to the numbers. In 2006-07, 6,283 divorce cases were filed in matrimonial courts - adding to the 5,677 earlier cases pending. Out of these, 5,236 cases were disposed of leaving 6,724 still undecided.

There may be a close connection between increasing divorce rates and the swelling numbers of cars in Indian cities, says a recent study by a Punjab-based voluntary group. A study says that divorce rates in urban India’s metros and smaller cities have more than trebled alongside an almost proportional rise in the number of cars, flyovers and expressways.

Delhi leads with the highest number of divorces, which have doubled to 9,000 over the past four years. This has been accompanied by nearly a 100 per cent in the population of registered motor vehicles in the capital. In Mumbai, which adds more than 80,000 vehicles annually, the report says, more than 40,000 of the 104,287 registered marriages between 2002 and 2007 ended up in court. And in the sparkling urban Indian showcase of Chandigarh, the divorce cases have gone up five times since 1997 alongside a proportion increase in the vehicular population which today counts up to nearly 600,000.

The judge of a matrimonial court said there used to be one to two cases in the 1960s, 100-200 in 1980s, about 1,000 in 1990s, but now it has increased to about 9,000 cases per annum.
Of the 1.3 lakh marriages registered every year, about 10,000 do not spell happily ever after for the couples involved — they end up filing for divorce.

The Delhi Crime Cell started a helpline in 2002, which is used quite often. The cell has so far received 13,061 calls; in 2006, it received approximately 15 calls a day. Of the 4,907 calls finally attended to by the cell, 71 per cent involved domestic violence, and only in about 4 per cent of the cases the police were able to broker a compromise. This suggests that increasingly women are speaking up against domestic violence. In 2007, the cell received 7,838 calls.

Complaints received at the CWC have shown a rising trend. In 2004, 2005, and 2006 and until November 2007, the cell received 8,349, 8,629, 9,879 and 9,166 complaints respectively. As far as the disposal of complaints was concerned, even though the formula of “compromise” was deployed in the majority of the cases, the number of cases registered was gradually going up.
There were 114 (2005), 137 (2006) and 132 (up to November 30, 2007) dowry deaths in Delhi. There were 658 (2005), 623 (2006) and 560 (2007) rape cases, while the cases of molestation for the same years were 762, 718 and 812 respectively, showing a substantial increase in such cases over the past one year.


According to NCRB data, the numbers of dowry deaths in the country during 2004, 2005 and 2006 was 7,026, 6,787 and 7,618 respectively. Amendments relating to the definition of dowry as also to increasing the penalty for dowry deaths under Section 304 B of the IPC are pending. In the years from 2002 to 2006, a total of 2,816, 2,684, 3,592, 3,204 and 4,504 cases respectively were registered under the Dowry Prohibition Act.

Data regarding dowry-linked suicides by women for the same period reveal that a total of 2,378, 2,347, 2,585, 2,305 and 2,276 women respectively committed suicide, with the largest numbers reported from Madhya Pradesh.


Mumbai by and large overtakes Delhi as the divorce capital of India in the next few months if the trend continues.At times, even 40 cases are registered in a day. According to the figures, more than 500 couples rush to the family court every month to seek divorce.
In the Chandigarh UT district courts the number of divorce cases filed in the local courts in the first four months of the year has gone up three times as compared to yesteryear.

In the last six years, a maximum of 54 divorce cases were filed in the local courts from January to April, but in 2008, the number in the first four months has touched 153.

Not only the number of divorce cases is on the upswing, another trend being witnessed is that couples, after having 15 to 20 years of living together, are moving the courts seeking legal separation. Reasons are many. While the older couples are citing incompatibility as the main reason for divorce, the younger couples are blaming it on cruelty, desertion and impotence.
Lawyers dealing with divorce cases hold that the lion’s share of such cases comes from upper middle class and it’s the working women who are usually the complainants in the case.

Parents of women who have been harassed not only want compensation from the court for their daughter but want her in-laws to face humiliation and harassment from the hands of police and court. We come across so many cases in which we ourselves try to persuade the parents to enter into a compromise and get rid of the litigation. But they flatly refuse the offer asking us rather to delay the litigation and suggest more ways of filing criminal cases against the husband and his parents tells an advocate.


While advocates blame it on the decreasing intolerance in the upcoming generation, the couples are ready to take any ground which fetches them quick legal separation.

Consider this: A local couple merely 13 days after their marriage approaching their counsel seeking divorce. The couple, belonging to an upper middle class was asked to remain separate for a year (a requisite under the law) to get divorce. The two got married on April 14 last year. On April 14, 2008 without wasting a single day, the two moved the court seeking separation. To ensure that no delay is caused in getting divorce, the girl, who was taking cruelty as the reason for separation readily agreed to convert her matrimonial dispute into a mutual divorce case when she was told that the normal case would take 4 to 5 years in Courts.

With population touching nearly 21 million, the divorce rate, in recent years, has increased tremendously in Haryana, witnessing about 5,000 divorces occurring every year. Haryana have recorded 150 per cent increase, out of which 75% of divorce cases are filed by youth in the 25-35 age group.
Punjab:

No official statistics is available on the status of “deserted” women in Himachal Pradesh despite the fact that studies by independent organizations show that the rate of desertion is very high in the State. Many rural women have been simply abandoned or “left” by their husbands, without any proper divorce proceedings.


The Women and Child Welfare Unit working in every district of Punjab approximately receives about a thousand complaints every year. Similarly in one of the districts of the state 1,247, dowry harassment complaints were filed. Actually, out of which only 123 cases were registered in 2006.

Going by the official data 58319 dowry deaths had occurred in 2005. As many as 134757 men were arrested, out of which 47828 cases reached the charge sheeted stage, where as 10491 cases were not charge sheeted on frivolous grounds.

It may be highlighted that the rate of men acquitted were actually four times that the rate of convicted. 5739 were convicted, where as 24217 were acquitted.

BOX:

Does law needs to be changed?

Send in your views at Hill Quest, SCO 96, Sector 40-C, Chandigarh.

Mail your views at:
Mandeep.puri@yahoo.co.in