Now that the union cabinet has approved changes in the Hindu Marriage Act and the Special Marriage Act, it will soon be easy and swift to get a divorce on the ground of “irretrievable breakdown of marriage”. 

Undoubtedly, this is a progressive step and would save many from taking recourse to lies, needless harassment and delay because their spouses wouldn’t either cooperate or play truant after filing for a divorce on “mutual consent”.

But given the fact that most marriages in our country are arranged ones in which women have little say and are economically dependent on their husbands, will this make them even more vulnerable? More so because of the social stigma attached to a divorced woman?

Also, is it a good idea to make divorce easy in view of the experience in the West, where divorce rate is so high that marriage as an institution seems to have crumbled and increasingly more and more Westerners are looking at India and other Asian countries to find their “life-partners”?