Marriages are made in heaven and divorces are???

India is changing at different pace and you don’t need to be a scholar to see the change. Though, in some aspects the depth of our value systems still remains unmoved like the caste system but there are some issues wherein we are getting very close to the western culture. The current rate of divorces in India is one of the yardstick by which we can measure our closeness with our western counter parts. As always, we will not discuss the statistics, but the fact whether divorce is healthy or not.

With all its technological advancement of 21st century and in this gadget age we are actually depended on materialistic world. The pressure to fulfill these requirements of modern times forces us to spend more time on work which is blocking our connection with our family, be it husband or wife. It’s proven that breakups are more in educated and carrier oriented couples than in the primitive ones. Relationship these days have become performance oriented. Couples are judged not with their love for each other but with their respective achievements.

I personally don’t see anything wrong in this. Though, it is not good for the society as a whole, but finally the society is paying the price for being so male dominated and female suppression since time immemorial. The society care takers, like always, blame the female financial independence for high rate of divorce. Just can’t agree…Lets see a situation where the female is not financially independent and at the same time is not happy in the marriage, she is forced to keep the marriage intact with all sorts of depression. Is the situation not worst than divorce?

According to me, all that a marriage requires is love element in it, without which it’s only a compromise, a social tag and a suffering relationship. In such a case is divorce a bad option? Divorce, even at this age is not looked upon high in our culture, but culture again has been twisted in all sphere of life for convenience sake. Otherwise, Indian culture is so rich that it has accommodated even the most odd situation possible, which no culture or society of modern times can even think off – remember Draupadi sharing 5 husbands at a time? So why culture being induced as a hindrance to freedom from the suffering marriages?

Many a times, people get married before evaluating the partners properly or in worst case even knowing themselves very well, and when the reality hits, either they land up with a bad marriage for life or divorce. Marriage is actually the biggest commitment of life and that should be taken very seriously. For that matter even live-in- relationship is a better platform for successful marriages. After knowing the shortcomings of the partner, if love still persists one should go ahead with the marriage commitment or else one will keep marrying and divorcing endlessly.

India has the lowest rate of divorce for many reasons like financial independence of women, difficult and time consuming divorce procedures, social stigma etc but now the rate is slightly increasing which looks like a respite for women. With the latest amendment in the Hindu marriage act, divorce has been made easier by making ‘irretrievable breakdown of marriage’ as a ground. It’s really an irony that even judges of family courts are often insensitive towards women and advice them to be more adjusting ( mind you, here the word adjusting and surrendering to in-laws has a very thin line between them). Though some counselors argue that by making divorce so easy, couples will not even try to reconcile, but still I see it as an easy end to unhappy marriages. After all life is to be happy…..