Over the last little while, we've posted quite a few articles discussing the state of divorce in various countries around the world. One thing that has become clear is that divorce is not a Western phenomenon. Today I found an article in The Times of India that discusses divorce in the city of Pune, India.

Pune saw an increase in their divorce rate from 150 cases per month in 2006 to 240 cases per month in 2007. There were a multitude of reasons given including lack of compatibility, cruelty, domestic violence, irregular communication, and interfering in-laws.

There were two interesting facts that I took from this article. The first involved the counseling provided by the family court where couples filed for divorce. I would never discourage couples from going to counseling, but this was interesting. The courts found that counseling, rather than encouraging couples to resolve their issues and stay together, ended up turning a unilateral divorce into a divorce by mutual consent. In other words, counseling turned one person demanding a divorce into both people agreeing that divorce was a good idea.

Secondly, one of the most popular reasons cited for divorce in India was interference from family members. Quoted from the article, "spouses prefer to talk about personal issues not with each other but with their respective families. This creates a communication void between them which results in misunderstandings.

Also, parents can't easily let go of their authority over their children. They are in the habit of interfering in the couple's day-to-day activities." Now, I come from a family were I love my parents very much, but if a month goes by without us speaking no-one is all that concerned, so it's hard to imagine parents who feel that they should interfere in a marriage.

It's a little bit more interesting than your garden variety "irreconcilable differences".

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