Is Marriage Losing its Importance
IS MARRIAGE LOSING ITS IMPORTANCE
INTRODUCTION
The word marriage would have acquired a negative aura around it in certain parts of the world because there is some sense of juvenile freedom. When you are a young adult you think marriage is a not happening but during childhood, you used to think that marriage is good. Isn’t it? We can definitely expect exceptional cases.
When you were a child, your father and mother were around you. At 10, you attended somebody else’s marriage. But when you are 18, suddenly you are against it because at this age you want to do many things in a certain way, young people choose to get into committed relationships without the government paperwork. This is a very natural feeling. So the real question is, Is marriage losing its importance?
QUOTE
“I fully support any marriage that doesn’t involve me”
“Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.” –Oscar Wilde
“Remember that creating a successful marriage is like farming: you have to start over again every morning”- H.Jackson.Brown, Jr.
“Wedding as an event is one night; a marriage done right is forever”
STATISTICS – What Numbers have to Say?
- In South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong the average age for marriage is 31-33 for men and 29-30 for women.
- The percentage of those not getting married before the age of 40 has been on the rise. For those in Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan, 15-20% of women married after the age of 40.
- In western countries it has been seen that marriage is being replaced by cohabitation, however, in Asian countries, this does not seem to be the case.
- Women in Singapore are becoming more educated and are increasingly active in the workforce, resulting in many women delaying marriage and motherhood in favour of pursuing a career. This has resulted in a significant proportion of highly-educated and highly-qualified women remaining single for longer.
- Between 1990 and 2015 the marriage rate in England and Wales fell from 13.1 marriages per 1,000 people to 8.3, while for the UK as a whole, there were 21 thousand fewer marriages in 2014 than there were in 2000.
- In India, the marriage rate has come down from 8 marriages per 1000 residents in 2008 to 6.9 marriages per 1000 residents in 2017.
DESCRIPTION – Let’s take a Deep Dive
Its’ not that long when marriage was extremely popular but today the pace with which people are getting married is decreasing year by year. There are many reasons supporting this such as people not wanting to get committed to each other, the huge expenses spent on a one-day wedding or simply see no point in getting married. But there are also exceptions where people want to get married. Let us have a look at both the aspects, whether marriage is losing its importance or not?
YES, MARRIAGE IS LOSING ITS IMPORTANCE
In recent years it has been observed that young people are opting out of marriage in general and choosing to be in a committed relationship without any verified government proofs. Partnerships help you in ups and downs but nowadays partnership itself is taking you down.
It might not be just you but the other person and that is what the problem is. Hence, Marriage as an institution is slowly losing its roots. Usually, marriage has been seen as a load rather than the adorable bond it used to be. There are some issues highlighting this fact.
- Choice – Some people have a notion of either marrying or not. It depends on their choice. They do not think about social pressures or the pressure from their families. Young people are mostly sided towards their choice part.
- Compromising on a career – As an independent and strong person, he/she is completely bounded towards career and personal growth but when it comes to marriage, there comes a responsibility of the complete household and in this problem, he/she may have to give up or compromise on his/her career. This mostly happens with women in Indian society because of the restrictions imposed upon them by their in-laws.
- Influence of Western Culture – Indian society is highly influenced by western ideas and liberalization has been the core of it. So live-in relationships and premarital affairs have been practised but less than one per cent of the people practice live-in together relationships in India as compared to more than 20% in the USA. So, it’s a hard truth that we are not culturally as advanced as countries like the USA but we have to accept the fact that we are looking forward to this kind of scenario.
- Adopting kids is no more considered as a taboo – Couples can adopt a child and raise it without any other formalities of marriage. Such people no longer think of society and they are freely choosing their babies out there rather than choosing husbands/wives.
- Freedom – A person always needs his own space and extra freedom to pursue his/her interests, working on his/her hobbies as well as maintaining relations with the society which may not involve his partner. But the partner might get hostile and left out which may even lead to divorce and extreme steps as one might think that his/her partner is not happy with him.
- Marriage for the sake of marrying – There are some cases in Indian Patriarchal society where a girl when she gets 23 or above, her parents think of her marriage and in no way she has a right to deny her marriage. Her parents force her to marry without her getting to know everything about her fiancé. And after the marriage, if things don’t go well, it might lead to complications.
NO, MARRIAGE IS NOT LOSING IMPORTANCE
However, marriage is still important to many people. There are some reasons for supporting this fact.
- Religious Traditions – Many people in India get married because it is in favour of their tradition. Arranged marriages are the best example of it. Many Christians believe that getting married and living together as a family symbolizes their love for Jesus.
- The best environment to bring up children – Many people get married because they think staying together as an officially married couple is the best environment to bring children up in, as their parents are less likely to split up and giving their children best childhood without any mental or physical disturbances.
- Love – When people get married they get immense love from their partners. It is a love that will always be there and will never leave. When a man and woman love each other unconditionally, joy and contentment follow.
- New Innings – Some people think that marriage as a new inning will take them to a new level wherein they get an opportunity to grow in selflessness as they serve their wife and children. People more than being physically united, get emotionally united.
- Security – Some people think that by getting married they are secured enough and life seem to be more beautiful with one another. When a person in a relationship prays for other’s wellbeing, get medicine when he is sick, show affections then both of them feel high security with each other.
CONCLUSION
As far as Indian society is concerned, the relevance of marriage is still intact. Though there might be some changes in the opinions and perspective about marriages yet we see marriage is still given much more importance even today. Though we live in a society where live-in relationships are completely legal and no one looks at it as in earlier days, we cannot ignore the fact that marriage has lost its importance. It is given utmost importance because even today rich people believe in big fat Indian weddings which depict their prestige.
In order to plan a future together and make a long partnership, the first step to take for the couple is communication. Understand each other completely, no matter if you need extra time. After that finally, get married. Our society still believes in the importance of love. So, though the way of living and thinking might have changed and our choice for selecting our partners have widened but the importance of marriage is still intact!
Author – Vishal Malpure
Scrutiny – Mitali Shingne
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