Mumbai’s Church takes action as divorce rates soar

(November 09, 2010) As divorce rates soar, Mumbai’s Catholic Church in western India’s Maharashtra State, is offering marriage enrichment cards and free weekend cruises to couples, who opt for its marriage strengthening courses. By getting couples to enroll, the church is hoping to counsel them to start working on their marriages and bring divorce rates down. Officially, India has one of the world’s lowest divorce rates, pegged at 1.1% (that is, only 11 marriages in every 1,000 end in divorce). But like most statistics, this number conceals more than its reveals. Given India’s patriarchal society and the low status of women, divorce is frowned upon, particularly in the rural areas, and couples find it much simpler to separate, rather than go in for a legal divorce. In urban India, divorce rates are rapidly rising. A news report two years ago, said that Mumbai and Thane recorded a 40% divorce rate for the period 2002-07; that is, for every five weddings registered, two divorce pleas were filed in family courts during the same period.
In Delhi and Bangalore, studies have shown that divorce rates have doubled, or even tripled over the last decade. This is due to many factors, among them nuclear families and working couples, who face stress and strain that previous generations did not. What makes it worse is that Indians are loath to seek counsellors to save sinking marriages. It is to change this mindset that the church is offering free courses to help save marriages.