Abstract:
Divorce is a legal status for an end of marriage life. In the Jaffna district, the number of divorces
among newly married couples has increased recently. This study aims to identify the trends and
causes of divorce among newly married couples in the Jaffna society. The study considered the
matrimonial profiles of the EQ marriage service online platform accessed from January 2022 to May
2022. The online platform offers various easy-to-use and quick facilities to the customers. A mixed
method was used for this study. Primary data sources include matrimonial profiles, key informant
interviews, and case study methods—the cluster sampling technique employed 99 divorced
matrimonial profiles to draw a statistically representative sample. The analysis used for this study
was qualitative and quantitative content analysis. Accordingly, quantitative data were analyzed using
SPSS version 21. The qualitative data used thematic analysis. The results revealed a link between the
trends and causes of divorce among newly married couples in the Jaffna society. Of the 99 divorced
profiles, 64% were males, 36% were females, and the majority of the divorced males lives abroad
(Europe). The reason was that frequent war and displacements have affected the Jaffna district.
Therefore, men and youth (boys) moved abroad and got their partners from Jaffna. On that basis, men
are more likely to apply for a divorce based on gender and anticipate remarriage. Nearly three-fourth
(90%) of the divorced belong to Hinduism, whereas more than one-fourth (10%) belong to
Christianity. Significantly, the divorced cases were high among the Vellalar high caste group (79%)
in the caste-based stratified Jaffna society. Further, in this study, 74% of the divorced cases belonged
to the category of couples below 35. In contrast, the comparative majority of divorced cases belonged
to Jaffna society's government and private sector employment category. This study recommends
more awareness-raising programs at family, religious, and community levels to reduce the divorce
rate among newly married couples.
