A Qualitative Study on Increasing Divorce Rates at the Khulna City of Bangladesh

Abstract

Divorce or separation is a personal as well as social issue. As a result of divorce, a bride has to come back to her parents’ house which is not considered respectable in the society of Bangladesh. And the situation can be more difficult if the parents are not alive or have no property. The study mainly focused on the causes and consequences of increasing divorce rate among urban women. For this purpose, women from 26 no. and 31 no. Ward of Khulna City Corporation area under Khulna District was purposively selected as the study area. This study is descriptive in nature, case study and focus group discussion method was used to conduct the study. Qualitative data were collected from the respondents who are separated from husband at least two years using a FGD guide. Total 26 samples were selected following the quota sampling method and every group contains 13 members on the basis of employment. The reason for divorce is multidimensional for women. Studies have revealed many traditional causes of divorce such as dowry, failure in the role of husband's provider, presence of alcohol and drug addiction, infertility, sexual dysfunction and physical violence. In addition, many modern reasons for divorce such as conflict of values, lack of commitments of the husband, suspicious nature of the husband, extramarital affairs and mental abuse can be the cause of divorce. After divorce, women face financial crisis, social harassment by family and society. Children from broken family are victim to psychological problem as well as economic crisis. Divorce always not a solution of conjugal life Problem.  The marital life survives on the self-sacrifice of both wife and husband. The couple who learns to sacrifice to each other will be able to enjoy a beautiful life.

Keywords: Divorce, Marriage.

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/11-22-03

Publication date: November 30^th 2021