Balford Henry, senior staff reporterA 50 per cent increase in divorces last year has helped to establish a new record for the number of divorces registered in any one year in Jamaica, based on figures available to the Statistical Institute (STATIN).
According to the Demo-graphic Statistics 2001 just published by STATIN, the 1,691 divorces absolute granted last year were, "the largest number granted in any one year since the statistics have been produced."
"This represents a very signi-ficant increase of more than 50 per cent over the previous year," the report said. There were 1,106 divorces absolute in 2000.
According to the statistics, divorces absolute had actually been falling since 1992, when it reached the previous highest figure of 1,454. It fell to 1,266 in 1997 jumped again in 1998 to 1,420, but fell to 1,131 in 1999. All 1,691 divorces absolute last year were grounded in irretrievability.
STATIN also reported a dramatic fall in marriages from the 27,028 recorded in 2000 to 22,391 last year. This led to a fall in the marriage rate to below 10 per 1,000 last year, from 10.4 per 1,000 in 2000 and a high of 11 per 1,000 in 1999.
But Reverend Ernle Gordon of the Jamaica Council of Churches is not surprised at the figures.
"Women are not marrying young anymore, they are being more careful in looking for their partners and are more responsible. Women, especially young women, are no longer tolerating abuses. The slightest thing that interferes with communication and they are gone. They have become more independent. Divorce (high rate) is merely the septum of the independence of women."
He pointed to the several other factors which he said contributed to the troubling figures. "Women are always striving to improve themselves, and the educated woman is advancing all the time, she needs a man who will advance alongside her and these are few. Many women complain that they are neither getting men with 'substance nor subjects'."
He said the result is that some women are now willing to resort to a one-parent family if they feel the man is not suitable to be a father to their child. Another important reason he says is the influence of a North American lifestyles as seen in the soap operas shown locally where divorce is common.
But other leaders like marriage counsellor James Douglas, blame it on a general moral deterioration, evident even in less liberal societies. "It's a widespread figure. Persons are no longer adhering to the principles and spiritual guidelines of a marriage. Many will think of rules as something negative, but rules were not made to hinder but to guide. A lot of married partners have abandoned the idea of faithfulness, or the 'two becoming one'. Now everything is relative, nothing is absolute," he says.
"We have to be counselling now more than ever, there is a definite breakdown," he said pointing to an even greater decline for the future.
The annual Demographic Statistics Report from STATIN brings together the census data with the annual vital statistics and the immigration statistics derived from the administrative records of the Registrar-General's Department and the Immigration Department.
Family planning, marriages and divorces, important elements in the size and composition of the population, are also considered and related statistics are included in the report. The institute is the Government's statistical arm and this year's report was tabled in Parliament on April 4.
STATIN, and its predecessor, the Department of Statistics, have been producing statistics on marriages and divorces since 1971.
The Institute explained that there appeared to be no established pattern to the incidence of divorces and that the numbers have fluctuated since 1991. Provisional figures for 2001, showed that the divorce rate went up last year from 2000's revised figure of 4.1 per marriage to 7.6 per marriage.
The median duration for marriages also dipped from 16.2 years in the early 1990s, to 13.5 years last year. The median age at the time of divorce in 2001 was 43.8 years for men and 40.7 years for women.
The fall in the marriage rate is interesting in light of the fact many of those recorded involved visitors getting married at local tourist resorts, including those involved in the controversial mass nude weddings.
Marriages have been steadily climbing since 1989, according to the figures produced in the latest report, and peaked at 29,155 in 1999.
STATIN said that, notwithstanding the high incidence of consensual unions in the society, the study of marriages and their dissolution is a very important aspect of the study of population changes and composition in any society, because of the important implications for family life formation and stability.
It recorded that attendance at family planning sessions fell in 2001 to 230,302 from the 285,127 recorded in 2000 and the 280,544 recorded in 1999.
The annual average for the period 1991-2001 is approximately 263,000 and attendance in 1991 was 307,965.
A total of 38,000 visits to the sessions were recorded by men in 1991, but by the 2000 it fell to 16,252.
Glenda Anderson also
contributed to this story.
