Already paying maintenance to wife? This activism will end it
Men’s Movement has been clueless about creating campaigns to save men from extortion under Section 125 of CrPC for last 6 or 7 years. Many MRAs do not even associate extortion or cruelty towards men due to bad interpretation of the concept of maintenance or spousal support (as it is known in Western countries). This inaction has damaged the situation for hundreds of thousands of men, as the quantum of monthly maintenance has sky rocketed in last 5 to 6 years.
Even as Supreme Court talks about creating guidelines for spousal support, we in SIFF want to create clarity about the whole issue and we are setting direction for renewed campaign to end cruel treatment of men by family courts.
Firstly, any battle against spousal support (maintenance) needs to have not one but 4 or 5 powerful and unique arguments.
Guidelines already exist
The Guidelines for deciding spousal maintenance already exist in Western countries like USA or UK. When Indian Govt and courts are borrowing western concepts like #MeToo or not treating adultery as a crime etc, why are they shying away from importing the guidelines on Spousal maintenance?
The Spousal Maintenance laws and guidelines in Western Countries are as follows:
- First, the Family Court figures out if a woman* deserves to get spousal support/maintenance from her husband or not. This depends on many factors.
- If the woman qualifies for getting monthly maintenance, the court looks at the duration of marriage to see if the marriage is for a long duration (more than 10 years) or for a short duration (less than 7 or 8 years).
- The maintenance amount to be paid every month is decided on the basis of many factors** like the gap in income of both parties, the amount of money (if any) that husband spent money on education of wife, the age of the spouses, the health condition of the spouses and the liabilities of the person paying the maintenance etc.
- If the duration of marriage is short (less than 7 or 8 years), then the monthly spousal support (maintenance) is ordered for a duration that is less than half of the the duration of the marriage. For example, if a marriage lasts for only 18 months, then the husband has to pay maintenance to wife for 4 months, 6 months or may be for a maximum of 9 months). This is called Durational Spousal Support.
- If the duration of the marriage is long (more than 10 years), then the husband may have to pay spousal support for a much longer duration or for the entire life time of the wife. This is called Life Time Spousal Support.
- Permanent spousal support (or maintenance) is ordered only after divorce, where as temporary/interim maintenance is ordered when the divorce case is still running in court.
- It is interesting to note that for very short marriages lasting 6 months or a year, the interim maintenance itself may end within 3 months with no option for a permanent maintenance for the wife.
- When a court orders a husband to pay durational spousal support (maintenance) to his wife, the intention is to enable her to get on her feet by finding a job. The woman has to be keep providing details to the family court about what steps she has taken to seek employment to become independent.
So, it is undemocratic and extremely unjust on the part of the Indian judges to order young men to pay lifetime maintenance to their estranged wives. Imagine, a 28 year old man is getting divorced from his 26 year old wife. If the wife is eligible to get maintenance, then Indian family courts order the man to pay maintenance to his wife for her entire life.
So, this 28 year old man will technically end up paying maintenance for next 50 years or so, if his wife chooses not to marry again or chooses not to do a job. This is almost like an infinite liability for the man. This literally signs men up for some kind of financial slavery, as they have to work for free and someone else gets a part of their income. Making men work for free for life is slavery.
This kind of interpretation of the concept of spousal support is very cruel towards men and this has to stop immediately.
If there is a child in the marriage, then the issue of child support will come up. In West, spousal support and child support are treated separately. The same is likely to happen in India as well.
Join the Activism:
All men who had short marriages and who are paying maintenance to wives or have paid arrears of maintenance must wake up and campaign asking Govt to end this cruel interpretation and limit duration of payment of maintenance to a period less than 50% or 30% of the duration of marriage.
Men who have already paid maintenance for a period more than half of the duration of their marriage must demand an immediate end to maintenance payments.
Its time to go to the streets with banners and posters to demand for accepting durational spousal support (maintenance) as a standard norm for short marriages. Its time to highlight this in Facebook and Twitter.
If you want to join us in drafting a Public Interest Litigation(PIL), please contact us.
Note:
A large number of woman do not qualify for getting maintenance even for a month. However, we will attack that issue separately on another front.
(Please keep following SIFF website for more updates about this powerful campaign.)
* The word “woman” is used for the sake of simplicity. The Spousal support law is gender neutral in India though it is rarely interpreted in favor of men.
** Whether there is a child in the wedlock or not is not a factor because Child Support (maintenance for child) is treated as a separate issue, rightly so, in Western countries. Upbringing of child is responsibility of both parents.
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