Mandatory marriage registration to protect Indian women

(August 04, 2011) The government of Delhi, headed by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, has cleared a draft bill that would make marriage registration mandatory in India’s national capital district. The Delhi Registration of Marriage Bill 2007 would also impose a fine of 1,000 rupees for couples that do not register their marriage within 60 days. The move comes as a belated follow-up to a 2006 Supreme Court ruling that found that many women were abandoned without protection by their husbands and could not produce any official document to prove that they had been married and thus entitled to certain rights. Now the bill will go to the Union Home Ministry for approval. After that, it will be submitted to the Delhi Assembly for approval. Once it is passed, women will be able to seek financial redress and child custody in case of separation. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh have already made marriage registration compulsory.