The Social and Legal aspects of Live-in Relationships.

Since past two years now, the Supreme Court has put its weight behind the efforts to mitigate the stigma connected with the concept of two people engaged in a “live-in” relationship. The society has looked down upon this western custom of unmarried couples sharing a living arrangement together as a long-term relationship, which is not very much unlike a marriage. In a country like India, where the custom expects a girl to be “pure” and innocent in every way before she is arranged to be married off, it has been hard enough for the society to start accepting love marriages, let alone a live-in relationship.

The reason most couples now-a-days are opt for living together is, to measure their "compatibility" with each other. With changing times and changing ideals, the outlook of the new generation has changed from what it used to be. A person values his individual identity and rights over others’. Naturally, youngsters these days do not wish to marry the wrong person for them which is why they choose to opt for living together first. Others do it because it is convenient; some have even decided to get married and live together in the engagement period, as it cuts their expenses and works out economically better.

Though this may sound absurd, but it has been noted that some couple wants to live together merely because it has become a trend and most of their friends are in a live-in relationships and they just want to go with what’s new. And in some others, there is a basic, deep-rooted fear of lifelong commitment called ‘marriage’, either because they have been hurt in the past or are off-springs from traumatic divorces.

Now, the legal characteristic of a Live-in relationship is posing a slight difficulty for the people to understand. The Hindu Marriage Act 1955 does not recognize ‘live-in relationship’ and neither does the Criminal Procedure Code 1973. However, an aggrieved woman is entitled to maintenance and other benefits against domestic violence under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 (PWDVA) which provides protection and maintenance to women.

The Supreme Court of India has said that Live-in or marriage-like relationship is neither a crime nor a sin though socially unacceptable in our country." It also noted that just any ‘live-in relationship’ does not make a woman eligible for alimony. To make a ‘live-in’ legal the Supreme Court says that the couple must hold themselves out to society as being similar to partners; they must be of legal age to marry; they must be otherwise qualified to enter into a legal marriage, including being unmarried; and they must have voluntarily cohabited for a significant period of time.

In most of the metro cities of India, the trend of live-in relationships has caught on and is slowly being recognized by the people. More and more couples are living together before marriage — but what about cities like Bareilly, Ranchi, Kanpur, etc. which are smaller? Such small cities are not ready to accept the concept of live-in relationships. They hesitate to allow to their son/daughter to walk into such an arrangement.  Despite of all the development and progress our society has made, India still remains a traditional and conservative society.

Even though, the system in our country may be readying itself for change, the fact remains that mindsets are yet to change.  Here, it's the woman who starts out with a drawback. If a relationship fails, she is the one who is judged. Here too, the burden lies on the woman and society passes judgment on her character. Unless we change the way we bring up our children, our society will not change.  How many middle-class parents can really say their child has the liberty to choose if she wants to get married or just live with a man? Here, in our overly patriarchal society, couples are killed for daring to fall in love. There are places where caste panchayats decide the destiny of young couples who dare to move away from the customs.

We have seen or read the incidents such as a girl being killed by her own family for having an affair with a boy they didn't approve of. If a society is so harsh about marriage without family consent and inter-caste love affairs, how can it ever accept live-in relationships?

Parliament  has  to  think over these  issues,  bring  in  proper legislation or make a proper amendment of the Act, so that  women  and  the children, born out of such kinds  of  relationships  be  protected,  though those types of relationship might not be a relationship in the nature of  a marriage.

We are not here to pass a judgment on the idea. After all, a relationship is restricted to two people and this one has now been given a legal accord also by our Apex court but how and which way it shapes up socially is entirely up to the society, community and the people and its watchdogs as it is still a long road ahead before the Indian society can completely inculcate this idea and embrace it for what it’s worth.