Western India to Recognise Live-in Relationships

Live-in relationships will be put on a par with marriage in western India after the government of Maharashtra announced it would be seeking a change in the law's definition of a "wife".At present women in India who are in non-martial relationships which end - either amicably or because they are deserted by their live-in partners - cannot seek alimony, a share of property or child maintenance. That is set to change in Maharashtra where officials have proposed an amendment to protect "the pecuniary interests of a woman who was living with a man like his wife for a reasonably long time".The move was welcomed by academics and charities working on women's rights as a long overdue step in recognizing the changing social landscape in India. In many cities, especially those with large information technology industries and Maharashtra's cosmopolitan capital Mumbai, young unmarried couples openly live together. Bollywood stars too flaunt their relationships.Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research in Delhi, said it was no surprise that Maharashtra had "moved first to update its laws". "Maharashtra has a very high percentage of working women and is progressive in the sense that live-in relationships are socially acceptable to the middle classes. You need a law that protects children and entitles these women to a share or property. It is a step forward in recognizing the autonomous rights of women," said Kumari.The move was criticized by Hindu conservatives as being a "step towards destroying the country's cultural fabric". Surender Jain, spokesman of the World Hindu Council said: "It will be bad for India to import these western ideas. We have seen in the west it leads to the breakdown of the family. In India it will see bigamy and prostitution rise."Bigamy is legal only for Muslims in India. Some feminists have questioned whether the law can be framed so to shield women from unscrupulous husbands. "Live-in relationships raise questions about legal stance towards bigamy…When bigamy is illegal in what sense can a live-in relationship be equal to a marriage, if either the man or the woman is already married?" wrote Shoma Chatterji, author of The Indian Woman.Officials in Maharashtra will have to convince the central government to accept the proposed changes in state statute – but point out that a federal commission in 2003 recommended that women in live-in relationships should have the "legal rights of a wife".Earlier this year the supreme court declared that children born out of such a relationship should no longer be called illegitimate. But the central government has remained silent on the issue - aware any move might spark a backlash among conservatives. "The only change has been in the domestic violence laws which do protect women in these relationships. The hard part is that in many parts of the country women who tried to use the law would be killed or laughed out of police stations. Maharashtra and some southern states are more progressive in that respect," said Kumari.