Divorce rate high among Indian Techies

Divorce Rate High Among Indian Techies By SiliconIndia, Sunday, 11 September 2011, 20:42 Hrs Bangalore: Techies are known to solve the toughest problems in the computer world using complex algorithms, but when it comes to marriage the smallest problem takes a toll on them. The pressures of the modern workplace has made a bigger difference in the lifestyle of techies. India still has one of the lowest divorce rates in the world, with about one in 1,000 marriages collapsing, according to recent studies. Divorce Rate High Among Indian Techies But the courts are now seeing so many new cases that the government has proposed making divorce easier and faster, in line with other countries. "There has been a huge change, a drastic change and divorce rates are increasing," Dr Geetanjali Sharma, a marriage counsellor working in Gurgaon, a wealthy Delhi satellite city, told the BBC. "There's been a 100 percent increase in divorce rates in the past five years alone.They don't want to put more efforts into a relationship to fix the issues." Most of those splitting up are members of India's thriving, urban middle class whose lives have been transformed by India's boom, and whose aspirations are radically different to those of their parents and grandparents. The pressures of the modern workplace make a bigger difference, she thinks, than whether it was a traditional arranged marriage, or a so-called "love marriage". "I feel people are concentrating more on the careers and less on their personal lives," she said. "I also feel they lack patience and tolerance. They don't want to put more efforts into a relationship to fix the issues, and they feel that escapism is the solution." The divorce rates in Kerala are going up. In 2009-10, the number of divorce cases numbered 11,600, with the majority being from the IT industry. "The situation is disturbing," says Rajiv Menon (name changed), a senior legal practitioner, who works at the Family Court, Kochi. "Most couples who work in the IT industry break up within two to three years of marriage." Rajiv puts it down to the odd working hours, usually at night, the high stress of the job, and an egoistic attitude. "The spouses adopt an attitude of superiority to each other," he says. "There is also a lack of communication which causes many misunderstandings." Meanwhile, Antony gives other reasons. "When they first join the industry, youngsters get swayed by the high incomes," says Antony. "Many of them take to drinks, drugs, late night parties and watching porn on the internet." Inevitably, the youngsters lose their equilibrium. "There is a widespread prevalence of pre-marital sex," says Antony. "They have been influenced by the serials on TV which glorify pre- and extra-marital sex in order to garner good ratings." IT professionals in troubled marriages are hacking into their spouse's email account for proof of extramarital affair or salary, say lawyers and cyber experts. Cyber experts say a growing number of cases have come to light where couples are hacking into each other's email accounts to collect evidence for divorce. And some are going a step further by fabricating electronic evidence for early separation reports NDTV Lawyers also claim that couples on the verge of separation are increasingly resorting to hacking techniques to score on each other. "No good lawyer would advise the litigants to hack into each other's accounts, but we are coming across many litigants who come to us already in possession of sheets of conversation wherein it becomes clear that the other person is having a relationship outside of marriage that goes beyond mere friendship," said Advocate Ajit Kulkarni. According to lawyers in the city, 30 percent of all divorces that happen in the city every year are among couples working in the IT sector, and 50 percent of them use hacking techniques to collect electronic evidence against each other. Gen Next relies on the Internet for almost everything it does, right from online banking to shopping, so when it is time to gather electronic evidence there are growing cases where in couples are also relying on Internet," said Advocate Abhay Apte. Advocate Pratibha Ghorpade said, "In many cases people meet on social networking sites and choose to marry without checking each other's background, and when it is time for separation they once again resort to the Internet and submit sheets of conversations between their spouse and the man or the woman who has allegedly jeopardised the marriage."