Delhi sees decline in couples opting for counselling to prevent divorce

In Delhi, couples are increasingly opting out of counselling to save their marriages and are filing for separation even before going for mediation, officials said.

Till November last year, police received 253 such cases, whereas in 2017 the number was at 412.

A senior official in the Special Police Unit For Women and Children, which deals with such cases, said couples first talk to each and later involve their families, if they are not able to get the solution.

"After taking everyone's suggestion, they finally come to police with their problems if they did not get a positive conclusion," Geeta Rani Verma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (SPUWAC), said.

The reason for not opting for mediation is that both husband and wife nowadays are working and are capable of bearing their own expenses, said Madhu Kalia, an advocate who deals with such cases.

She added, earlier women were not educated enough to take care of their children but now they are earning.

A senior police officer said a lot of reasons lead to such situations and thus there is a rise for not opting for mediation. The officer also blamed lack of background checks before marriage for such incidents.

Nowadays, couples are more mature and they make up their minds for divorce before approaching anyone, Kalia said, elaborating the reason for the rise in such cases.

She said couples sometimes don't even have concrete reasons for separation and often they say that their wavelengths don't match.

Earlier, many NGOs used to work to save marriages but nowadays we do not have such good and effective organisations working on marriage counselling, another lawyer said.

The ratio of divorce in both love and arrange marriages are almost the same, the lawyer said.