Divorce rate on rise in country
Syed Shemul Parvez :
Conjugal conflict is increasing at an alarming rate. As a result, the number of divorce is rising sharply across the country.
Because of this separation, minor children are becoming helpless and passing uncertain miserable life due to absence of father and mother.
According to the sources, the number of divorces is the highest in capital Dhaka. And women are applying more for divorce or separation.
The figure of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) shows that the cases of divorce are rising, especially among educated couple. The rate of divorce has been rising alarmingly for the last 15 years.
In the last one year, the rate of divorce has increased to 1.4 per cent in the country; which was 0.7 per cent in the previous year (2021). According to the survey of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the divorce rate has doubled in the space of just one year.
It was seen in the last year (2022) that a divorce was registered every 40 minutes on average in Dhaka. The number is also rising outside Dhaka.
Experts are concerned over the issue and blamed some aspects, including lack of mutual understanding as the reasons in almost all the divorce applications.
Other reasons include family dispute, mental abuse, extramarital affairs, dowry, second marriages, drug addition, and separation from expatriate husband, sexual dysfunction, doubt, indifference and conflict of personalities.
In this regard, Dr Tawohidul Haque, Assistant Professor and Society and Crime Expert, Institute of Social Welfare and Research, University of Dhaka, told The New Nation that the rate divorce has been increased truly in the present time but it doesn’t mean that it was absent in the past. Actually the pattern of breaking relation is different based on the persons and society.
Most common aspect behind the divorce is lack of mutual understudying between the husband and wife.
If there is absence of mutual confidence, trust, responsibility and crisis of relationship, the conjugal life cannot be sustained for long time.
Besides, people don’t get proper guides, motivations as there is no research, lessons as well as others chapters related to family bonding in our education system, he said.
Nowadays women empowerment or financial emancipation is also a vital point for women to make a decision independently regarding a family issue that was absent in the past society. As a result considering the dispute, women can take decision as she has financial solvency, Dr Haque added.
About the rise in the trend of separation, Fatema Rezina Iqbal, Professor of Sociology at Dhaka University, told the media that there has been a decline in case of tolerance in the society. Issues like pressure of urban life, self-centrism, likes and dislikes of partners, unfulfilling of physical demand affect a conjugal relation.
Women are deciding for divorce after getting no respect in their family. Difference in cultural understanding between husband and wife is also getting bigger, Fatema Rezina said, adding that a partner should be chosen carefully even if it is a settled marriage or a love marriage, and a cultural homogeneity is also necessary.
Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) provides legal counsel to people seeking divorce. ASK director Nina Goswami told the media that majority of married women are victim of physical and mental abuse in their husband’s family. When this increases too much there is no option but to decide for a divorce. Among those who are educated and self-respecting, they can decide easily, she added.
Meanwhile, the parliamentary committee on Women and Child Affairs has also expressed concern over the increase in the number of divorces in the country. The committee recommended necessary measures to reduce the number of divorces in the country.
It is mentionable that the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance of 1961 is still in force in case of divorce.
According to the law, the application for divorce has to be sent to the office of the respective mayoral offices in Dhaka, subject to the permanent address of the wife. The appeal gets registered there.
After receiving the divorce application the authorities send a settlement notice to both the applicant and defender.
The authority does not have any liability if the two parties fail to reach a settlement. The divorce becomes effective if neither party compromises or withdraws the appeal within 90 days of submission.
