Viewpoint: Going extra mile against crimes of passion

Are mega TV serials and cinema behind the rise in scandalous relationships?  Do they give clue to people involved in clandestine affairs to commit offences including murder and kidnap?  Whether better public exposure of women, who rightly broke restrictive customs, and their mingling with third parties in their offices or professions are some of the reasons for clandestine relationships?  Is illicit intimacy due to lack of quality time spent by spouses with each other, depriving of their emotional, psychological support and physical comfort and pleasure? Is the spurt in scandalous affairs due to internet which offers platforms like Facebook, Facetime, WhatsApp and Instagram  giving chance for strangers to get connected?

These five of the 20 queries raised by the Madras high court this week reflect society’s angst.  

The court observed that extra-marital relationships have become a "dangerous social evil" contributing to various crimes and sought details from the Central and the Tamil Nadu governments on such cases registered in the last 10 years.

The 24x7 TV channels dish out serials throughout the day. The mega soaps seem to have weaved themselves into lives of audience and become part of their family. Majority of them know how to keep the audience glued to the TV set. Second marriage/adultery/murder/kidnap/ assault are justified in soaps and movies and viewers don't question them.

Changing times have driven women to get along with opposite sex at office and they work late hours too.  Balancing married life and such friendship is subjective as it may endanger the institution of marriage.  

Walking the tight-rope of life balancing career and family has turned stressful for couples.  With joint family system and emotional and psychological support given by kith and kin disappearing, couples now are in a bind.  

And smart phones, grabbing most of their quality time spent with family, have only compounded their woes.

Cases of  women harassed by 'friends' on WhatsApp and FB are going up. The rate of breakthrough in such case by cyber cops may be encouraging, but the gullible continue to fall a prey to such online Romeos and fraudsters.

In the light of the HC's observation that murder, assault and kidnap are committed because of clandestine relationship, the Supreme Court decriminalising adultery in September 2018 seems to have become a double-edged sword.