Goa to make premarital counselling compulsory amid divorce spike

Panaji: Alarmed by the rise in the number of divorce cases, the Goa government has decided to make premarital counseling mandatory.

On Monday, Nilesh Cabral, State Law Minister said the state government’s Goa Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development (GIPARD) will finalize the counseling course and its format. He said, “We are coming up with a new policy to make premarital counseling mandatory in the state. We may also rope in religious institutions for the same. Many divorces are taking place within six months to one year of marriage. As a policy, we thought that premarital counseling should be made compulsory to create awareness among couples.”

The Law Minister however said that he was not aware of the exact number of divorce cases that are filed every month. “I don’t have the exact number of divorce cases per month. Earlier there were not many cases. The number has increased now. Olden days, 10 years down the line, 14 years down the line, there weren’t so many cases. But now cases are increasing. This is a collective decision taken by us,” the minister said.