Chinese govt seeks ways to stem mushrooming divorce rate epidemic

Chinese government is taking measures to tackle the worrying rise in divorce rates in the country.

According to a senior civil affairs official, nearly 10,000 marriages break up in China every day and the authorities are considering to include enhanced counseling services to help people with marriage woes, China Daily reported.

Zhang Shifeng, head of the Department of Social Affairs at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said that the number of couples seeking divorce has risen for 10 consecutive years and there were 3.1 million divorces in 2012, which is a 133 percent increase over 2003.

In Beijing in 2013, about 164,000 couples married and 55,000 couples divorced and experienced a 65 percent increase in divorce between 2011 and 2013.

Zhang said that some local governments have either established institutions or set up hotlines to provide counseling for couples and the civil affairs department is considering introducing social workers to provide professional family consultation services in communities and other proactive measures to provide help and guidance to couples in distress.