Tshering Namgyal | Mongar
Out of 240 cases registered in Mongar dzongkhag court this year, 117 cases have been related to matrimony.
Records maintained by the court showed 105 cases from the 117 resulted in divorce, where jealousy, alcohol, suspicion after finding partners chatting on social media with people of the opposite sex, and PUBG games were some reasons for filing for divorce.
In some divorce cases filed by women, financial and emotional harassment were also alleged causes.
Records also showed that other cases filed were related to financial issues, land, rape, burglary, and battery.
Meanwhile, divorce cases have been found to have a significant negative impact on the lives of the children of those involved.
A mother of two stays in Mongar town after her husband left her a few years ago. She is raising the two children alone. “My husband refuses to pay monthly alimony for the children.”
She said she did not want to get divorced, but her husband found another wife. “Our divorce should not affect our children.”
Mongar’s Nazhoen Lamtoen office case management officer, Pema Dorji, said the divorce of parents can have a serious psychological and financial impact on the lives of children. “Although parents try to enroll children in school, a lack of a source of income for the mother poses challenges to studying well or getting nutritious food.”
He said as a civil society organisation, Nazhoen Lamtoen accepts referral cases of such students in difficult circumstances identified by the school administration, gewog administration, or informants, or who are identified during assessment in rural pockets. “We provide financial assistance for education and managing livelihood.”
Pema Dorji said the Nazhoen Lamtoen office in the dzongkhag has thus supported three children in difficult circumstances as their parents divorced.
He said besides the financial support, they also provided counselling sessions initiated in collaboration with the hospital and drop-in centre for some mentally and emotionally affected children.