Did you really think that with all the time in the world during the lockdown, couples would have grown closer than ever, especially the married couples?
Sorry to burst your bubble, but it is not entirely true.
One of the first indicators of not-so-happy married lives is the increasing cases of domestic violence. In a normal situation, the victim could flee from the violence and stay somewhere safer, but lockdown made the victims more vulnerable. As a result, the violence experienced a surge.
The COVID mandated lockdown in India saw a simultaneous rise in divorce and child custody cases. During the lockdown period in India, Mumbai, which witnessed the highest number of COVID cases, also saw an equal swelling in the number of cases filed for divorce and subsequent child custody. Delhi acquired the second spot.
Has Coronavirus Something To Do With The Rising Divorce Cases In India?
Divorce is always seen as a taboo in India. Moreover, the long period of litigation and the cumbersome process of hearing is very undesirable. So Indians, in any way, prefer to avoid divorce.
But with coronavirus, the couples have to face a much more difficult test. And its outcome is definitely going to be a dealbreaker. The biggest strain in their lives came with the seemingly neverending lockdown.
Lockdown And Divorce
Adjustment and compromise is the foundation of any Indian marriage. Sad, but true. With the advent of the lockdown, there were quite a few changes in the lives of the married couples.
Their personal spaces were getting redefined and were mostly shrinking with the couple being stuck at home. It made the acceptance or compromise much more strenuous and tricky.
Spending as little time together as possible to avoid any conflict is the fulcrum of many apparently successful marriages nowadays.
It was not a problem at all if both the partners are working. Lockdown complicated the situation. The couples were now forced to stay at home together for most of the time.
Also Read: Supreme Court Declares Second Marriage During Proceedings Against Divorce Valid
In India, women in a household are usually the emotional sponges of the families. They are always on the receiving end of any trouble that the households face.
Now with more monetary, health, and emotional problems in families, women are also subjected to increased household work.
It is inevitable for an Indian married female to feel all worked up, and if she is confident enough, divorce then becomes a by-product of the situation.
Moreover, being stuck at home anyway takes a toll on our mental health. In such circumstances, resentment or bitterness in relationships is completely normal. And if not properly guided, the rancor can get aggravated and finally lead to divorce.
A clear threefold rise in the number of divorce cases in some of the first-tier cities of India during the lockdown demonstrates the increasingly strained relations. And coronavirus was a significant contributor to that.
A lawyer search platform, Lawrato.com has noted that about 6 out of the 10 calls they receive in a day is about divorce. Another similar website, Lawyered.in has experienced a 20% spike in divorce cases since the lockdown.
At the same time, it cannot be denied that lockdown has brought many couples closer and, the current graph of the baby boom bodes well with it.
Situation After the Lockdown
As the nationwide lockdown is now ever, many of the services are available to the couples. The first and foremost is marriage counseling.
Kanishk Gupta, director, and co-founder, Sukoon Health, has found an increase of almost 20% in family and couple counseling sessions compared to the sessions before the lockdown.
Although there is not much data on the number of divorce cases after the lockdown ended, successful counseling can stop the rising figures. However, there is one more aspect to it. Many couples without better reach would have found it too difficult to file divorce cases.
So, apart from the hasty divorces, the inevitable ones would finally culminate, once we try to return to normalcy, raising the overall divorce rate.
Although we do blame coronavirus for this, it can never be sufficient to break a successful marriage. What it did, in most of the cases, was to give some relationships the final push down the hill.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: The Times of India, The New Indian Express, BBC News
Find The Blogger: @soumyaseema
The post is tagged under: coronavirus, divorce, marriage, counseling, domestic violence, child custody, financial insecurity, pressure, anxiety, mental health, personal space, hasty divorce, cumbersome process, lockdown, hearing in India, quarantine, COVID-19, increasing divorce rate, divorces india covid-19
Other Recommendations:
