A socio legal perspective on the impact of divorce on children`s welfare : a pilot study on children living with single mothers in selected rural areas in Selangor

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the impact of divorce on children from the socio-legal perspective. The focus is on fathers who neglect to pay maintenance for their children. This has resulted on shifting the burden to their former wives who in turn, would depend on their support system i.e. “kampong” or rural area where their family members, especially their parents would assist them. Theoretically, maintenance of children is the duty of the father and is the basic right of the child. However, reality shows that when divorce takes place, it seems that the responsibility of the father to maintain his children’s welfare will eventually cease, especially if the mother is given the right of custody. Therefore, this study which is conducted based on library and empirical research highlights the impact of divorce on children’s welfare from the socio-legal perspective. This study shows that single mothers with children who live in urban areas prior to their divorce would normally return to their “kampongs” for economic support. Failure of non-custodial fathers to provide maintenance for their children becomes burdensome for these single mothers to provide the best for their children, especially in terms of educational needs due to the high school expenses especially those who have more than one schoolgoing child. This has forced single mothers to rely on other parties, especially their own family members and other welfare institutions, to assist them in raising their children, even though some of these single mothers have part- time jobs. It also shows that the main factor of non-custodial fathers’ failure to maintain their children is particularly due to being missing in action, jobless, and having a low income. However, there are a number of non-custodial fathers who willingly maintain their children without any force especially from the Shari’ah Court and their self-awareness is believed to be the key factor for them to continuously maintain their children. Structurally, this thesis is divided into six chapters; the first chapter discusses the background of this study. The second chapter discusses the socio-legal impact of divorce on children which covers a discussion on the marital conflict which has led to divorce, the short and long-term impact of divorce from the psychological, behavioral and economic perspectives on these children, negative outcomes among children who are adversely affected by the parental divorce, and children who can cope very well with their parents’ divorce. The third chapter discusses maintenance for children according to the Islamic perspective from the views of four Muslim schools of thought: the Mālikis, Hanbālīs, Shāfi’is and Hanāfis. The fourth chapter touches on the legal position of children’s maintenance in Malaysia and other selected Muslim countries. The fifth chapter which is the crux of the thesis, discusses the research findings and analysis, followed by the last chapter which is the conclusion where relevant recommendations are offered to solve some of the problems related to this particular issue.