Cohabitation is no doubt one of the biggest social changes that the contemporary British society has to deal with. A cursory perusal of some basic statistics will reveal the enormity of the issue. In the UK, in 2001, 76 percent of the couples lived together before they got married. Out of the 25 EU countries, Britain has the seventh highest out-of- wedlock birth rate of 42.3 percent. Cohabitation is no doubt a consequential trend which is altering the basic dynamics of British society. Intense brain racking is taking place amongst the sociologists, psychologists and the state institutions to incorporate this novel phenomenon in the current social setup, without altering the general stability of the British society. Rather than being a moral issue, at present, cohabitation is more of a social and cultural issue that has attracted the attention of intelligentsia from all walks of life.



Cohabitation Versus Marriage

Being a developed society, Britain can not afford to respond to the so called moral aberrations with an orthodox approach. Yet, any sustainable social institution can not afford the sense of ambiguity that cohabitation entails. Cohabitation may simply be defined as an arrangement in which the two consenting adults tend to live together in a sexual relationship without getting married. It tends to differ from a marriage in many respects. A marriage has a well defined legal procedure whereas cohabitation is devoid of any formal requirements. One can enter into a cohabitative relationship, any time one wants to. There is a definite legal procedure for divorce or dissolution of a marriage whereas a cohabitative relationship can be ended informally. A divorce is accompanied by strict provisions regarding the division of property, spousal support and child support. The termination of a cohabitative relationship has no stringent guidelines attached to it. These differences have serious repercussions for the people involved in a cohabitative relationship, so far as their legal rights and obligations are concerned.

People put forward various reasons in support of cohabitation. It is argued that cohabitation has financial advantages as both the partners can contribute to the cost of living. Cohabitation is devoid of any complications with partners getting more time for each other leading to better intimacy. Many times, people opt for cohabitation as a sort of trial marriage to test their mutual compatibility. It is being seen as a contemporary alternative arrangement to traditional courtship, though with an element of sex attached to it.

Various studies carried out in the last fifty years tend to disfavor cohabitation as it does not involve any enhanced satisfaction or stability as is generally expected of it. Cohabitation is mostly marked by a lack of commitment in which both the partners are mostly concerned about their own well being. Most of the times, people get lured into it because it promises a minimal responsibility with a provision for easy exit. About 30 percent of cohabitations end within ten years and after 5 years only 10 percent of the cohabiting couples who do not marry tend to stay together. Getting out of a cohabiting relationship is almost as cumbersome as a divorce so far as the emotional and financial repercussions are concerned. Married couples, despite having less freedom as compared to cohabiting ones; still enjoy a high degree of bonding and intimacy. Cohabitants feel more insecure about their relationship and often develop negative attitudes towards marriage and parenting. Couples, who are married, though have to face many sacrifices and compromises; yet, they end up acquiring high levels of tolerance and adaptability. Cohabiting partners, on the contrary exhibit less emotional and sexual fidelity as compared to those who are married. The most serious fallout of cohabitation is that it involves higher emotional and financial risk for children in case of a split. According to a recent survey, the incidence of physical abuse is double in case of cohabitating couples. Cohabitating couples also have a high mortality rate- 50 percent higher amongst women and 250 percent higher amongst men.

Recent Developments

Recently, various legal provisions have been proposed to adjust cohabitation within the ambit of regular social framework. As per the latest government predictions, the number of cohabitating couples is expected to increase to 3.8 million by 2031, as compared to the present figure of 2.2 million. In August 2007, the Law Commission has proposed to consider certain legal rights for cohabiting couples. In July 2004, a state funded campaign was launched to spread awareness amongst the cohabiting couples regarding the limitations of their legal rights as compared to married partners. So far, all the surveys and statistics tend to hold that marriage is still a major bulwark on which the society rests and it is here to stay.