Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A woman has put her five-year-old marriage at stake to make her father debt-free. She left her husband’s home in Bhopal in 2023 and shifted to her parents’ house in Rajasthan. She is not ready to come back till her husband agrees to pay Rs 60 lakh debt of her father. The man is a businessman and the woman is a teacher.
They had an arranged marriage in 2018 and are parents of a one-year-old son. The woman’s parents live in Rajasthan. Her father owes around Rs 60 lakh to different debtors and she wants her husband to repay it. She feels that as son-in-law, it is her husband’s duty to free her father from the burden of debt. Her two younger brothers are students.
She began pestering her husband to repay the loan shortly after their marriage. The man assured her that though it was not possible for him to arrange such a huge amount, he would try to do something. He even paid around Rs 4 lakh to his in-laws to partly clear the loans. But the woman kept on insisting that he should pay the entire amount.
Finally, she left her husband with their son and began living with her parents, making repayment of loan a precondition for her return. The husband is unable to arrange the required funds. But for their son’s sake, he does not want to break the marriage.
And so, he filed a case at Bhopal District Family Court under Section 9 of Hindu Marriage Act, seeking restitution of his conjugal rights. The woman, however, was not ready to live with her hubby. She filed cases against her hubby and in-laws under the Domestic Violence Act and Dowry Prohibition Act.
The counselling centre at the family court is trying to work out a compromise between the two. The woman told the counsellor that she feared for her life. “I am scared that I may be murdered if I begin living with my husband and his parents,” she told counsellor Shail Awasthi.
The latter is counseling the couple. “It is the age of gender equality and the women feel that like their brothers, it is also their duty to help their parents. The case is the outcome of that mindset,” Awasthi said.
