NT NETWORK
Panaji/ Mapusa
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday said the government has decided to drop the proposal on pre-marriage counselling in the state.
“The concerned minister had expressed his view on making pre-marriage counselling compulsory in the state,” he stated, adding that however, the government is not keen on implementing it and the proposal would be scrapped.
The announcement came at a virtual meeting at the North Goa BJP office at Mapusa, where Sawant said that there will be no notification on the compulsory pre-marriage counselling in the state.
“Proposal was there but the government will not take it forward, and it will be dropped,” he said.
The government’s decision has come in after serious opposition emerged from the BJP.
Following strong backlash from all religious communities in Goa, the Bharatiya Janata Party earlier on Thursday opposed the proposal of Law Minister Nilesh Cabral that had advocated introduction of mandatory counselling for couples before their marriage registration.
Maintaining that such a step would create “hassles” for the couples heading for marriage, state BJP president Sadanand Tanawade told ‘The Navhind Times’ that people across the religious lines did not like the particular decision of the government, and hence he recommended to the Chief Minister immediate withdrawal of the move.
Disclosing this proposal recently, Cabral had told media persons that such a counselling would be conducted by the state, which in turn “explain the concept of marriage” to couples before they are allowed to enter into wedlock.
The counselling was supposed to be done immediately after the first signature. It was proposed to be conducted through the Goa Institute of Public Administration and
Rural Development.
“If any religious institutes want to join in the pre-marriage counselling, then they are also welcome,” Cabral had said.
Rejecting the proposal, Tanawade said that in Goa elders in the family, including parents of the bride and the groom themselves, function as marriage
counsellors.
“The Goan families treat marriage as a sacred lifelong bonding between two individuals, who share mutual love, respect and concern towards each other,” he observed, pointing out, “Therefore, the families are not inclined to allow outside intrusion in this personal bonding.”
The state BJP president said that Goa follows the most respected exercise of marriage namely civil registration, and has a low rate of divorce.
“In India, the divorce rate is 0.24 per cent of the married population, while in Goa it is 0.18 per cent,” he noted, maintaining that in Goa divorce is not a major problem.
Under the Uniform Civil Code prevalent in Goa, the first signature made before the civil registrar indicates the couple’s declaration of intent to marry. The second signature is appended before the same authority after 15 days of the first signature, and then within next three months comes the formal marriage
registration.
Incidentally, Cabral had said that in Goa, couples are filing for divorce within six months to two years of marriage but didn’t produce any data to back his claim.
Tanawade, on the other hand, said that Goans settled outside the state or the country are still facing difficulties as regards online registration of their marriage in Goa.
“They face difficulties in uploading documents and so on, and the Law Minister should first try to streamline the marriage registration process for Goans, who live outside Goa instead of introducing such concepts,” he concluded.