Right to maintenance

The status of Indian women has undergone considerable change. Though Indian women are far more independent and aware of their legal rights, such as right to work, equal treatment, property and maintenance, a majority of women remain unaware of these rights. There are other factors that affect their quality of life such as age of marriage, extent of literacy, role in the family and so on. In many families, women do not have a voice in anything while in several families; the women may have a dominating role. The result is that the empowerment of women in India is highly unbalanced and with huge gaps. Those who are economically independent and literate live the kind of life that other women tend to envy about. This disparity is also a cause for worry because balanced development is not taking place.

The Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, was enacted with an objective, namely to protect the rights of divorced Muslim women. The Act, entitles a divorced Muslim woman, to claim maintenance from her ex-husband. Further, it provides that the husband is obliged to provide maintenance within the period of iddat (waiting period imposed upon a Muslim woman, after dissolution of her marriage). However, the obligation is not restricted to the period of iddat. Also, the Act provides that in case her husband fails to provide maintenance, she can approach the Wakf Board for the same.

Muslim women are entitled to maintenance under Muslim personal law as well as the Protection of Rights on Divorce Act, 1986. To a layperson, what does ‘maintenance’ really mean? Simply put, when a couple divorce, the husband is legally bound to provide for the expenses of the wife and children, which is called as ‘maintenance.’ It must, however, be noted that a Muslim wife is only entitled to maintenance so long as she is faithful to her husband and obeys his ‘reasonable’ orders. Moreover, the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939 enables a Muslim wife to seek dissolution of marriage on the ground of failure to provide maintenance.