The nature of divorce has changed dramatically in modern societies. Today, many countries have put procedures and rules in place for handling the splitting of assets, child custody, and the enforcement of support agreements. In liberal democracies regulation of marriage is a matter generally for the state, not religious institutions or families. Yet official statistics from many European countries show that the majority of people who marry do not stay married or end up living together. In England, only 51 percent of adults are currently married. Today, any marriage can be dissolved, legally, if the husband and wife are no longer living together. In many countries, the partners must agree on the conditions of the separation or divorce. Otherwise, a court will decide how to divide their property, debts, and responsibilities toward their children.
Marriage today has lost some of its transcendent purity and become just another contract. As a legal arrangement it is far more complicated than it was in the past, with court-supervised, ‘no fault’ divorce at one extreme and marriage contracts at the other. Divorce rates are on the rise in India while more and more people are working to end the stigma associated. They blame women to be selfish when they file for divorce. The divorce laws only provide for men but not for women. Covering approximately 1,237,263,889 people, India is the seventh-largest country by population in the world. In a country that large, relationships will sometimes end or significantly degrade, and thus there exists a need to have divorce available. Today, the country prides itself on diversity making relationships richer but it also makes them difficult when they end. Despite having had divorces for many years now, it has always been seen as something negative.
Divorce is not a luxury but a right. It does have a positive correlation with most of the developed countries in terms of crime/suicides, divorce, mental health issues, domestic violence, and so on. And by the society, if it continues to consider that at least one-third of its married men are experiencing dissatisfaction with their marital status; and if women are being restricted from being in touch with their inner selves and individuality. Harsher terms such as ‘desertion,’ ‘jilt,’ etc. are used to describe the act of leaving your partner. The skewed perspective can be related to the background where divorce is considered a guilty act and a sign of being immoral. Although legally accepted, divorce has yet to be socially accepted in India which remains a complex issue that needs to flourish in order to promote feminism. Divorce rights have been given by the government but divorce practices are still constrained by traditional norms and values of Indian culture.
The only way we are going to solve this problem is if we start talking about it more openly, ‘normalize’ divorce, take the stigma away from it. Only then will society realize that they need to support a woman who decides to end her relationship and empower her to do so without being judged. From the perspective of society, a divorce can be defined as a woman leaving a bad husband. But at the same time, it is also recognized that women have some important life experiences. It can go through the post-divorce period well. In a way, divorce can improve women’s lives and become more successful in later than before divorce.