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Mumbai: The Maharashtra Government's proposal to amend Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to protect the interests of a woman in a live-in relationship has been hailed as a progressive step.
The amendment, which has drawn from the recommendations made in the Malimath Committee on Reforms of Criminal Justice System, 2003, would need the Centre's approval to become a law. Under the amended legislation, a woman who is living with a man as in a marriage can claim maintenance if she is dumped by her partner. "
This is a progressive decision by the government as it would not only provide security to a woman but also make men more accountable for their actions," says Nirmala Sawant Prabhavalkar, a lawyer and former head of the State Women's Commission.
Section 125 of the CrPc provides for giving maintenance to a neglected wife, child, father or mother unable to support themselves. Though there is a provision for maintenance of an illegitimate child, a woman in a live-in relationship has no rights that a wife would enjoy. Therefore, the proposed amendment would redefine the word 'wife' to include the woman who was living like a wife for a reasonably long period.
Though the government has not specified what this period should be, the Vice-Principal of SNDT College of Social Work, Farida Lambah, suggests it should be a one-year period. She, too, thinks it is a progressive step, "from the women's point of view since it not only gives status to a woman but ensure that a man does not go scot free".
She believes it will make men more responsible, make them think twice before getting into a live-relationship and even curb such relationships. "The amendment will neither harm monogamy nor encourage polygamy," adds Prabhavalkar.
Mediaperson Deepa Suryanarayan goes a step further to add that the term live-in relationship is an urbanized connotation of glamorous young men and women, both earning, living together. "But there are several cases of uneducated, unemployed and poor women who are lured into living with men who later throw them out as they get older," she says.
Ground realities
The Malimath Committee report, which has been gathering dust, says that "a woman in a second marriage is not entitled to claim maintenance as in law a second marriage during the subsistence of the first marriage is not legal and valid...This is manifestly unreasonable and unfair.
"The man should not be allowed to take advantage of his own illegal acts. Law should not be insensitive to the suffering of such women." Therefore the Committee has suggested that the definition of the word 'wife' in Section 125 should be amended so as to include a woman who was living with the man as his wife for a reasonably long period, during the subsistence of the first marriage.
How do you think this will impact the moral fabric of society? Is tradition being forgotten as social mores take over?
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