growing Fiji problem

De facto marriages a growing Fiji problem

From a Suva correspondent There are two Latin words which everybody in Fiji knows, even the illiterate. De facto, meaning, in fact. Those two words signify a way of life in the colony which causes as much family tragedy as alcohol. And social workers are seriously concerned.

DE FACTO has become a euphemism for “living in sin”.

Such alliances number thousands in Fiji. Social workers know about many of them long before the neighbours do. They come to the attention of the general public when the neighbours have to intervene in some sordid beating up, or when the police are brought in and there is a court hearing. Or perhaps the de facto husband deserts his “wife”, who is then unable to support his children.

In court, a woman who might have been assaulted by a drunken man she lives with, invariably tells the magistrate she is married.

“Legally?” asks the experienced magistrate. Then she hesitantly admits that the marriage is not legal and adds, somewhat defiantly, “He is my de facto!” As if this were a sort of near-marriage—as if it were a term denoting respectability.

But courtesy titles give no legal protection, especially in regard to maintenance, and this is one of the big problems of the de facto arrange ments.

No legal claims

If the woman is prudent enough she can have the man declared the father of the child, so long as she does it within a year if he is a chance acquaintance. Then she can claim maintenance for the child.

But for herself she has no claim.

She must depend entirely on what he is prepared to give her.

If the couple have been living together for more than a year, and it can be proved that the man has supported the child, then a court order can be applied for in respect of any offspring not registered in his name.

But the man can leave her for another, more attractive and younger woman, whenever his fancy takes him. What would normally be ordinary family squabbles could lead to him walking out.

Thus the de facto wife lives in a permanent state of insecurity. She has an unconscious fear of a rival coming on the scene, or of an argument that will go too far.

Misery for children

Social workers find that the deserted de facto wife often makes no attempt to bring the man to book because she cannot produce any documents to support legal action.

Even when a maintenance order can be served there may be so little evidence about the man’s where abouts that the police are un enthusiastic about searching for him.

In the meantime there is great misery for the children.

Fiji social workers are continually campaigning among young women, warning them against living with men who will not or cannot marry them.

They point out that if marriage is possible, then a marriage licence from a registry costs only 10/-, and every woman intending to cohabit with a man permanently should get one in case she should ever need legal protection.

The social workers continually stress that women who have had a child by a man who is not their husband should have him adjudged the father, so they can base a claim for support if needed.

The social workers point out that there is a job to be done here by strong bodies in Fiji such as the churches and social organisations the Red Cross, the St. John Ambulance Brigade, the YWCA. During their contacts these organisations should hammer home repeatedly the dangers of de facto living.

Fiji survey needed

The problem can also be met, say the social workers, by an intensive survey of the incidence of de facto marriage in the colony.

Those who are involved closest with the problem say that it has

Examples of misery

own in recent years because of the eakdown of social sanctions with e growing urbanisation.

In village life, behaviour habits ;re controlled, and in any case egitimate offspring were absorbed to the family.

Poverty, due to low wages, high dng costs and families that are too rge, has caused some parents to ve away their daughters to men 10 will relieve them of the burden supporting them. The daughter, no education, has no earning »wer.

Here are some sordid examples of e misery occasioned by this form de facto marriage. • One father gave away his ughter at 16. When she was 19 is girl had a 2i-year-old retarded ild, plus a two-months-old baby, alf way through her second preg mcy the de facto husband joined s relations overseas.

Since court orders of this kind are »t reciprocal there has been no dress, and the father is now sup irting his daughter and her two ildren, together with several other ildren of his own, including a by aged six months. • A beautiful girl given away by r father now has an 18-months -1 child on her arm, but her de zio husband has legally married a fe of his choice. The young mother a cripple unable to work. She es in a chicken shed, and her rmer “husband” allots her 7/6 a ;ek! • A 16-year-old girl was given by r stepfather to his next door ighbour. Half way through her st pregnancy the de facto husband serted her and she worked for her ing; the baby died at birth. Man d girl lived together again, and dory has since repeated itself actly. • A girl asked a social worker, 10 has already borne many of her oblems, for “permission” to marry man of 40. A check by the social irker revealed that the prospective itor was already married, with four ildren.

And so it goes on.

Fiji’s social workers know only o well that even happy de facto arriages frequently end in heart eak—for instance, following the ath of the “husband” the children’s ritage can be in doubt, since the ather is not legal next-of-kin. Blood lations have a nasty habit of ap aring from the sidelines when the tate is to be divided.