Bengaluru Live-In Couples Fight So Much The City Cops Have Created A Helpline For Them!

With live-in relationships becoming a common phenomenon in the city, the Bangalore City Police's helpline for women, Vanitha Sahayavani, has had to create a new section to deal with squabbling couples who live together, but aren't married.

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In the last one year, it has seen nearly 95 such cases. On an average, they say, every month at least five to six cases are reported.

With increasing cases of disputes coming in, Saraswathi, senior counselor of Vanitha Sahayavani, says they were compelled to create a different section to address the problems faced by live-in couples because individuals in such cases were not bound by legal obligations, like married couples. And this made things complicated.

Many youngsters who come from outside the city tend to live with their colleagues or someone they know from their hometown. In most cases, while it goes great in the beginning, problems begin to dent the relationship a year or so into living together, explains Saraswathi.

She say "In most cases, arguments begin when one of them hopes for a long--term commitment, but the other doesn't reciprocate the sentiment. Typically in the cases we deal with, the woman would have hoped to marry her live-in partner after staying with him for a few years, but the man would claim he is under no obligation for a long-term commitment "

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She believes that women often have a lot of societal and parental pressure to move on to the next level after living in with someone, and thus expect a long-term commitment. And this, despite the Supreme Court removing the stigma attached to live-in relationships, stating that in modern times, such a relationship is acceptable, and not a crime.

A case in point

Saraswathi gives an example - Two weeks ago, Vanitha Sahayavani received a case of a woman being "cheated" by her partner after living together for over three years.

When the couple was asked to come for mediation, the man said he had not promised to commit. He claimed he had signed no agreement saying he would only marry her. 'We were living together in the same house by splitting the household expenses. But I had made no promise of marrying her; so how is it cheating?' the man had said.

Saraswathi say "The boy had fallen in love with another woman and had decided to move out of the house. The girl came to us to file a cheating case against him. After the financial settlement, she decided to part ways"

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With the absence of any legislation giving recognition to live-in relationships in India, there is a lot of ambiguity regarding the rights and obligations of the parties involved. The courts have taken a step forward in granting maintenance to women in a live-in relationship.

Women have rights

The courts have also empowered women in such relationships ¡ª in the nature of marriage ¡ª to file a complaint not only against the man, but also against his relatives, in case of an offence against her. The Supreme Court has also accorded protection against dowry harassment to a woman in a live-in relationship. "It is due to these provisions created by the court that the problems of cohabitation, that were earlier kept hidden, are now coming to light," believes Aparna, senior counsellor at Vanitha Sahayavani.