A higher proportion of divorced/separated women are victims of abuse by their husbands than currently married women. Photo Credit: Gopinathan K
On May 1, the Supreme Court said that in cases where the marriage is “beyond hope of rescue”, a cooling-off period of six to 18 months would only “give rise to misery and pain.” It held that its extraordinary discretion under Article 142 of the Constitution can be exercised to do justice to couples trapped in acrimonious marriages.
this decision Can help ease the suffering of Indian women who wish to get divorced. Data shows that a higher proportion of divorced/separated Indian women have endured emotional, physical and sexual abuse from their most recent husband, compared to currently married women. A higher proportion of divorced/separated women also experienced restrictions on their mobility and played a limited role in spending decisions during their marriage compared to currently married women. A high proportion of divorced women had faced suspicion from their (then) husbands during the marriage. These findings are based on the National Family Health Survey-5.
The share of divorced women who experienced emotional violence (disrespect, humiliation, threats) from their most recent husband during their marriage was twice as high as that of currently married women ( Table 1, The share of divorced women who experienced sexual violence (13.4%) was more than double that of currently married women (5.8%).
Table 1 | Experience of violence: Share of women who experienced emotional, physical, or sexual violence at the hands of their husband/most recent husband
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Similarly, the share of divorced women who experienced physical violence during pregnancy was two and a half times higher than that of currently married women ( Table 2,
Table 2 | Experience of violence during pregnancy: Share of women who ever experienced physical violence during pregnancy
About 21% of divorced/separated women were accused by their most recent husbands of being unfaithful during their marriage, compared to 10.1% of currently married women. Similarly, the share of divorced/separated women who experienced marital control by their husbands when the couple was together was much higher than the share of currently married women ( Table 3,
Table 3 | Marital control by husbands: The share of women whose husbands…
Therefore, statistics show that in most cases, women’s decision to separate from their husbands was the result of years of physical and emotional abuse. And as the Kerala High Court observed in September last year, the perception held by some in recent times that “couples break marriage bonds for weak or selfish reasons” is not true for most cases.
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The recent Supreme Court judgment will help women move forward faster in their lives, as statistics show that the share of employed divorced women was much higher than currently married women.
Table 4 | Employment Status of Women: Share of Women
as shown in Table 449.1% of currently divorced/separated women were employed, compared to only 26.6% of currently married women. Their freedom of movement was much greater than that of married women at present ( Table 5,
Table 5 | Freedom of movement: The share of women who are allowed to move…
In addition, they had a higher opinion of monetary decisions, with 72.8% of divorced women being allowed to make their own spending decisions ( Table 6,
Table 6 | Women’s access to wealth: Share of women who have access to…
While the share of divorced/separated women who experienced abuse from their most recent husbands was high, it is important to note that the share of currently married women who suffer this type of pain is relatively small in number. More than 30% of currently married women have experienced emotional, physical or sexual violence in their lives. About 80% of them never disclosed it to anyone, which partly explains the very low divorce rate in India.
Furthermore, while divorced women have gained relatively greater autonomy after divorce, their independence is not absolute ( Table 5), only about 70% of them are allowed to go alone in many places and have money that they can decide to use.
rebecca.varghese@thehindu.co.in and vignesh.r@thehindu.co.in
Source: National Family Health Survey-5
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