Editorial: SAVING COUPLES FROM DIVORCE

Marriages are sacrosanct in our land and expected to last a life-time. The most-trusted institution recently came under a nation-wide survey conducted across 10 metro cities of India. Around 69% of women, questioned as part of the poll, agreed that they marry for stability and security in life. They also agreed that once divorced, the life of women becomes more difficult than that of men.
Yet, women in the country are facing a new set of challenges with new-found financial self-dependence. They are increasingly dissolving the once-considered indissoluble union, defying physical, mental and psychological abuses inflicted on them. Delhi has been considered the Divorce capital of the country with a whopping nearly 10,000 divorce cases fought each year, with a shocking average 10 cases per day. The reason being not only a desire to come out of a soured marriage, which is true only in some cases, but also the new-found desire to be free economically and live in dignity, without restrictions.
A few decades ago, the grounds for divorce were very limited, both for men and women, and divorce was sought only under extremely compelling circumstances. Now, with the rise in the number of cases, the laws of divorce have been made simple, yet with more clauses added. But until now, there was no provision for divorce under the grounds of emotional breakdown of marriage.
The Law Commission has recommended to the Centre that 'irretrievable breakdown of marriage' be incorporated as an additional ground for the grant of divorce under Hindu Marriage Act (HMA), 1955. The Commission, headed by A.R. Lakshmana, has said: "The foundations of a marriage are tolerance, adjustment and respecting each other." The present generation marriage, built mostly on the foundation of economic strength of either side, is lacking in the very ingredient, tolerance. Most marriages now are crumbling not due to physical or mental abuse, but because of the 'breakdown' of regard to each other. Children are the eventual victims.
Setting up a helpline for couples heading for divorce, a Women's Police Station in Ranchi has started counselling services by providing doctors, lawyers and counsellors to the couple opting for divorce, giving them yet another chance to reconcile. Our State's Police Stations could do well to adopt it. At the end, it is in the couple's hand to save their marriages. As Nietzsche says, "It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages" and building that friendship seems to be the ambrosia that could save marriages.
The entire debate on divorce in the land is heavily biased towards the urban scenario. The issue of breakdown of marriages in villages seems to have been sidelined. The victims of soured marriages in rural parts, being unlettered, are worse-off.

Editorial: CHILD LABOUR

Mysore city recently saw the first ever case of Juvenile Justice Act being enforced in the State. A woman was arrested for illegal detention of a 14 -year-old girl as a bonded labourer and ill-treating her. The girl had been working under strenuous conditions for over a year, according to Mysore District Child Welfare Committee which rescued her. This, unfortunately, has not been a singular case of child labour in the State. A 12-year-old girl was rescued in the recent past in Heggadadevana Kote taluk. Such cases which come to light are however very few. Karnataka, a State known for intellectuals and thinkers, has more than 8,23,000 child workers, according to a government census. Those children who escape the census are mostly the children who work in homes as domestic workers — unseen, unheard and undervalued. It is appalling to know that India is thriving on 90 million child labourers, 20% of whom are below 14 years. It is said, poverty is the primary cause for a parent to push a child to bonded labour. But it does not end there. The not-caring attitude of the poor parents towards education, that it is a luxury rather than a necessity in terms of economy, has added to the basket of woes. It is saddening that though according to Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, the period of work should not exceed beyond 41/2hours a day, most child labourers and other domestic workers are put to a gruelling 12 to 14 hours work per day, abused psychologically and physically. It should not, however, be the only option of the governmental and non-Governmental organisations to rescue and liberate them. Their rescue will just put them from the frying pan into the fire. Being uneducated and unskilled in other works except what they had been doing, most children go back to working as before albeit in a different place and a different condition. Chennai's Child Labour Elimination Programme (CLEP), which rehabilitated 6,050 children, was forced to wind up owing to paucity of funds. A large chunk of the cake called rehabilitation should be topped with education. Providing self-employment to the parents with enough profit to sustain themselves should be the priority. After all, parents who cannot help themselves, will be in no position to help their children.