Dr. Matiur Rahman & Shishir Reza :
Corona Virus Disease-19 (Covid-19) has made our familiar world unfamiliar in all respects. It has also changed the way people live. A number of studies have already been conducted worldwide to oversee social, economic, political, health and psychological impact of this disease. Its impact on the lives and livelihood of people of different classes and professions has created many undesirable glitches. It has also impacted depressingly in family life worldwide. Divorce or separation between husband and wife is one of the woeful events.
Global statistics show that divorce rate has sharply increased worldwide during the Covid-19 pandemic. In Bangladesh, the number of divorces is increasing day by day. In the capital city Dhaka, this number is higher than in any part of the country. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the divorce rate has increased by 34 per cent in the last seven years. A newspaper report shows that at present, an average of 37 divorces is being filed per day in Dhaka North and South City Corporation. On an average, 70 per cent of the applicants are women.
A number of studies have shown that divorce rates typically increase in response to natural disasters and crises, and even the strongest relationships can fail during unprecedented, unpredictable, and overly stressful times. It has also revealed that this occurred due to the “disillusionment phase” of disaster- a time when people were most discouraged, negative, and stressed out by Covid-19. From a sociological perspective there are several theories of divorce like Functionalism, Conflict, Interactionism, etc.
In light of the theories sociologists opined that the reasons for the increase of number of divorces are social unrest, economic change, and deviation from established rules and regulations of society. And because of Covid-19, most families have had a difficult time. In addition to economic and social damage, there was a kind of family pressure in everyone. As well as changing people’s mindsets, intolerance has also increased. That is why the number of divorces has also increased.
Moreover, the combination of working from home, virtual learning for students, social distancing, financial hardship, stress, less quality time to relate, illness or the deaths of a loved one, etc., has been difficult for many people with divorce rates spiking as a result. Spending more time together during the lockdown period has led to a lack of mutual respect and love in many families. Experts also see this as one of the reasons for divorce. The number of divorces has also increased due to women’s independence, women’s self-reliance, and women’s tendency to make their own decisions.
In Bangladesh who applied for divorce mentioned several reasons. Among the reasons for the wives’ application are the husband’s skeptical attitude, extra marital relationship, torture for dowry, drug addiction, adultery, sexual inability, etc. On the other hand, husbands are divorcing their wives for disobeying their husbands, not following religious rules, bad temper, serial addiction, Facebook addiction, differences in choice, incapability of giving birth of a child, etc. But the main reason for divorce is mismatch between husband and wife, personality conflict, morality, etc.
Divorce always resulted some positive and negative impact. Who suffer the most from the divorce are the children of divorced parents. Divorce causes a huge negative change in the mentality of children. Therefore, before divorce, both husband and wife have to make a thoughtful decision.
To prevent divorce experts have suggested many ways. For example, communication among spouses in advance of important things or at the front end of problems to avoid confusion, hurt, and upset; connect daily and support spouse through attentive and active listening; doing things together- going for a walk or exercising, cooking, and eating meals together as a couple or family, doing home improvement projects, and having date nights for quality together time; expanding support system ; drink in moderation or not at all since excessive alcohol use can lead to distorted and exaggerated negative emotions and responses and poor judgment and impulse control ; maintain a healthy work and personal life balance and try not to let your work or work stress spill into your time with your spouse and family ; be spontaneous and plan something fun; support spouse in active co-parenting and strive to agree on how you engage, reward, and consequence your children as a couple; maintain healthy self-care and have a routine.
Thus, we should try to adapt as much as possible to this new changed life. In times of crisis, we have to show ourselves as each other’s strength without going against each other. Only then it would be possible to reduce this divorce rate to a large extent.
(Dr. Matiur Rahman is Research Consultant, Human Development Research Centre and Shishir Reza is Environmental Analyst & Associate Member, Bangladesh Economic Association)
