In the recent years, with the advent of westernization, we have seen that there have been many instances where the populace has tried to copy the trend of west in order to get westernized and in the same line we see a new trend which is getting popular among the folk, mostly among the metro population, these days and which is often in news for something or other and that trend is the trend of living with a partner without being wedded with him or her i.e. “live in relationships”.
“live in relationship” was to a extent negligible in India earlier, though it can be traced to a extent in rural Gujarat, but now with the advent of “more westernized” culture we find that many youths who work in corporate houses, Law firms, MNC’s have chosen this as a part of their lifestyle. Studies conducted at various levels and by different organisations show that in the recent years there has been a double digit jump in the numbers of youth cohabitating together.
There have been debates over this topic at every forum and here comes a divide between two groups or rather it should be termed as a “Generation gap”, now there is on one side the youth community, or the ones who are actually practicing it or have adopted it as a part of their lifestyle, which wants that this “arrangement” should be given a legal backing and support “live in relationship” and their another argument is, that being adults they have the right to live with anybody either before marriage or after marriage. On the other side we have the army of “elders” who are “spiritually charged” and claim that “live in relationship” is against religion, decency, morality and thus should be banned, their another argument is that such kind of arrangement is harmful for the social fabric and if not nipped in the beginning it can create a big “chaos”.
Many international studies conducted at various levels show that “live in relationship” has resulted in lowering the rate of “divorce” because if both the partners feel that they can’t cohabitate together anymore and are not able to give personal space to each other then both of them can decide to discontinue the relationship thus preventing a “bad marriage” and also its “consequent” result. It would not be wrong to term live in relationship as a “firewall” stopping unstable marriages, ending in divorce later.
This trend has become very popular among youth in metropolitan cities and especially in cities like Delhi and Bombay where people come from different parts of the country and from different paths of life. Not only this, there has been a change in the outlook of society not at large but to a considerable extent, consequently,in a recent judgement by the Honorable Supreme Court, it was held that a child born out of a “Live-in Relationship” will have the same rights over his father and his assets as a natural legal heir would have. Similarly a recent judgement of Madras High Court, which made much publicity, ruled that proof of “copulation” between the couple of legal age will be equivalent to proof of “marriage” and they have to bear the “consequences” except in “unavoidable circumstances”.
I personally believe that old ideas should give way to new ideas because change is the “law of nature” and “change is inevitable” and anything which remains constant can’t survive, thus the society at large needs to change its outlook towards the different rays coming from different directions. The world and situation which a youth had to face in 1980 or 1970 has now changed. Today the youth of 2013 has different goals, has to face different situations, has different compulsions and thus has to “choose” a different lifestyle, which I believe should be accepted by society at large.