Compulsory registration of marriages under consideration

The government is planning to bring in a central legislation to make registration of marriage mandatory. It is a welcome move. As a matter of fact, compulsory registration of marriage has been talked about for 15 years, but the government has been dragging its feet for various reasons.
With the Supreme Court finally drafting the guidelines, the legislation seems within the realm of reality.It will go a long way in helping women enforce their rights within marriage.
Every claim a woman makes in relation to her marriage requires proof of marriage to validate it and she is often unable to produce such evidence.
Visit any family court and you will find deserted wives, victims of bigamous relationships and hapless widows who stand robbed of their entitlement because they don't have proof of marriage.
All their energies are exhausted in trying to establish the fact of marriage. It would be much easier for the state and the law enforcing agencies to come to their rescue if they had the crucial evidence in the form of a marriage certificate.
Some may argue that those who want to deny women their due will always find a way of circumventing the law. True, but that should not stop the state from passing this enabling legislation.
The laws are for the law-abiding and they outnumber violators, or else there would have been social chaos. Besides, proper documentation is necessary for national planning and social engineering.
We aspire to be a knowledge society, but such a society is unimaginable without proper records of births, deaths, marriages. Can we hope to put an end to child marriage without ensuring universal registration of marriage?
Irrespective of the kind of marriage ��� Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh or Arya Samaji or a simple exchange of garlands ��� it should be mandatory for couples to notify the local authorities ��� it could be the gram panchayat in rural areas ��� and obtain a certificate within a month of marriage.
However, given the Indian social reality, it will work only if the procedure is simple and hassle-free.