Divorce and Separation in India

Abstract

PREMCHAND DOMMARAJUNON-MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE are becoming increasingly common in many parts of Asia. In East Asia, with the exception of China, marriage rates have fallen and divorce rates briefly reached levels as high as those seen in OECD countries (Dommaraju and Jones 2011). In Southeast Asia, too, marital dissolution through divorce or separation is rising (ibid.). In China, where marriage rates have not declined to the levels seen in other East Asian countries, divorce rates have tripled or quadrupled over the last two decades (Lu and Wang 2014). The major exception to this trend in Asia is South Asia, where marriage continues to be nearly universal and relatively early and divorce is relatively uncommon.In India, the focus of this article, despite wide social changes over the last three decades, marriage is still predominately caste endogamous, universal, and early and involves active participation of family and kin in spouse selection. Although changes have occurred in many aspects of the marriage system including marriage age and spouse selection (Allendorf 2013; Andrist, Banerji, and Desai 2013; Desai and Andrist 2010; Prakash and Singh 2013), these changes have not radically transformed the institution of marriage. While much is known about changes in marriage formation in India, there has been little socio-demographic research on marital dissolution. With the notable exception of Bose and South's (2003) article on son preference and marital dissolution, there has been no major quantitative study on divorce in India.This article has three broad objectives. First, it presents nationally representative estimates of prevalence, trends, and variations in divorce and separation. Media reports with headlines such as "The great Indian wedding is succumbing to the great Indian divorce" 1 have proclaimed dramatic increases in divorce and separation in India. These reports are, however, based on partial and incomplete data and non-rigorous analyses. Besides media reports there are scattered ethnographic data that by their nature are not generalizable, and quantitative information on divorce and separation is lacking. The estimates presented here provide a firmer quantitative basis for identifying trends and variations in marital stability by region, religion, family composition, and education.Second, the article examines how marriage stability is affected by broader changes in the social-cultural milieu and by specific changes in the marriage system. Some of the factors that are responsible for divorce trends POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW 42(2): 195-223 (JUNE 2016) 195

Divorce and separation in the Philippines: Trends and correlates

“…This unexpected relationship remains unexplained, but Park and Raymo (2013) speculate that factors like the rapid increase in educational attainment in Korea and educational differences in the pace and magnitude of changes in attitudes toward marriage (and divorce) or in gender division of labour within marriage might help elucidate this relationship. Similar results have been found in India, where education has been shown to promote marital stability (Dommaraju 2016). Dommaraju (2016: 216) attributes this to the role of education in providing women with "greater say in marriage, greater bargaining power, and greater gender equity -all of which could contribute to stronger marital bonds.…”

“…By 2010 these numbers had increased more than 10-fold to 330,253 men and 565,802 women. As in other geographic settings, the higher number of women than of men who are divorced or separated could be due to higher repartnering rates among men than women (Dommaraju 2016 Similar upward trends can also be observed in data on numbers of annulment and nullity cases filed at the Office of the Solicitor-General (OSG), where cases increased from 4,520 in 2001 to 11,135 in 2014 (Figure 1). The majority of these cases were filed by wives (61%), of whom 91% were 30 years old or younger.…”

“…Other determinants of marital dissolution that have been examined in previous studies (but will not be investigated here due to data limitations) include female employment, age differences between spouses, presence of children, marital duration, and previous history of marital breakdown (Alam, Saha, and van Ginneken 2000;Bhuiya et al 2005;Dommaraju 2016;Jennings 2016).…”

“…Some of the other factors that have been found to be associated with marital dissolution and will be examined in this study are religion, ethnicity, and birth cohort (Lehrer and Chiswick 1993;Wu and Balakrishnan 1995;Hirschman and Teerawichitchainan 2003;Hewitt, Baxter, and Western 2006;Dommaraju 2016). In general, Catholics have been shown to have lower divorce rates than people from other religious groups, probably because the Catholic Church discourages divorce, thereby increasing the costs of ending an unsatisfactory marriage (Wu and Balakrishnan 1995).…”

Predictors of Marital Dissolution During a Period of Rapid Social Change: Evidence From South Asia

“…Even as family life has been changing along with these changes to the social infrastructure (Axinn and Barber 2001; Axinn and Yabiku 2001; Ghimire et al 2006), marital dissolution remains uncommon in this setting, similar to other settings in South Asia (Dommaraju 2016; Dommaraju and Jones 2011; Goode 1993). This does not preclude that a nontrivial number of women and families have ever experienced marital dissolution (Dommaraju and Jones 2011).…”