Goa will start premarital counselling sessions for couples registering for marriage, law minister Nilesh Cabral said, citing the rise in number of divorces and annulments of marriage.
The Department of Registration will carry out the programme in the 15 days between registration and solemnisation of marriages, the Indian Express reported.
Cabral said, “The annulment of a marriage has to be notified. If you go to the Gazetteer of Goa, you will see that there are at least 10-15 marriages annulled every 15 days.” He added that they decided to come up with the programme as a “social responsibility” of the Department of Registration.
The minister said the department should take responsibility to “sit with the couples after the first signature and tell them what their duty towards each other is, what their duties and responsibilities towards their children are, what their duties towards their in-laws are”.
He said that it will be a half-day classroom programme and couples will be issued their marriage certificate immediately after attending it.
To introduce the programme, an amendment will have to be brought about in the existing laws for which the government may bring about an ordinance in the next session of the Goa Legislative Assembly slated to be held in July.
The Goa Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development (GIPARD) will be roped in for designing the programme which, officials said, the government had been thinking about for about a year.
Cabral said the Catholic community in Goa already has premarital counselling for couples held by the Church. However, the government will now be holding counselling sessions for couples across religions and this will be a first in Goa.
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