Muslims view Supreme Court alimony provision as an ‘interference’ in personal laws, but largely believe it’s a legitimate right: Survey

By: Team CVoter

Compared to other religions, the Muslims in India’s Hindi Speaking belt are twice as likely to believe that the verdict interferes in their personal matters up to a great extent.

The Supreme Court of India’s decision to extend the provisions of alimony to Muslim women on the pretext of equality has received a mixed response, the CVoter snap poll conducted last week had shown.

To make the data more comparable, the CVoter foundation ran another sample test with more respondents on 11-12 July (total 1,870) and it turns out that compared to other religions, the Muslims in India’s Hindi Speaking belt are twice as much likely to believe that the verdict interferes in their personal matters up to a great extent.

When asked - whether the extension of alimony laws to Muslim women is an interference to the Muslim Personal Law - about more than 41% Muslim respondents said ‘it interferes a lot’ the same for non-Muslims was only 21%.

In contrast - there were 46% non-Muslims who felt that this verdict wasn’t interfering at all against 23.4% Muslim respondents believing the same.

Though the provision of Alimony - in Islamic law is still being contested, practically, under some circumstances, men are not obliged to pay divorced women a monthly contribution to their expenses. However, a large share of our sampled Muslim respondents believed that alimony is a legitimate right for a woman to bear her expenses and raising of a child till she finds a job or remarries.

The only difference is the scale. For example - for alimony as a right - about 40% Muslims agreed compared to 58.4% non-Muslims. Similarly, when asked whether alimony is an ‘extortionary tool’ to harass successful men, only 10% non-Muslim respondents negated the statement opposed to 20% Muslim respondents.

However, based on our data, it is unlikely that alimony laws will bring a substantial rise in the divorce rates among Muslim households. When asked what would happen to the divorce rate among the Muslim population following the alimony verdict - nearly 32% Muslims responded that it would decrease, opposed to 58.5% non-Muslims believing the same.

In contrast, 27% Muslim respondents believed there would be no change in divorce rates. We also asked if men could use moral suasion to not let go of their wives that easily - but barely 8.6% Muslim and 8.4% non-Muslim respondents believed so.