BAGLUNG, August 20: Cases of couples seeking divorce have increased in Baglung district in the last four years. In the fiscal year 2016-17, 138 cases among the total 489 cases filed at the District Court, Baglung were related to divorce cases.

According to the district court, 125 of the 138 cases have been settled so far.
In the fiscal year 2015-16, 135 cases were related to divorce among 694 filed at the court. Meanwhile, in 2014-15, 105 among 448 cases were related to divorce. 

District Judge Him Lal Belbase said, "We can say that this society is starting to open up considering a number of divorce cases that have been filed," adding, "As the women are getting empowered, they feel that they should not be oppressed. This is why divorce cases are increasing."  He attributed foreign employment as a key reason behind the growing divorce cases in the district.

District Court of Baglung has settled 73 percent of divorce cases, which is three percent more than what they were aiming for in this fiscal year 2015-16. Judge Belbase said that the court had settled a total of 354 cases so far including 142 from last year.

In the fiscal year 2016-17, 489 cases were filed in the court. Besides 138 cases related to divorce, 69 were property disputes, 64 property allocation cases, 34 forgery cases, 25 cases related to family relations, 24 rape cases, 14 murder cases and 5 were criminal cases. 

Judge Belbase said that it had been hard for them to settle cases due to both applicants and defendants recording conflicting statements. The district court informed that it has still yet to recover Rs 853,000 from punishable 
offenses after settling all these cases.

 
• foreign employment
 
• rising divorce
 
• baglung