TOI doing "yellow journalism"??????

Why women cheat?

This was an article featured in TOI edition of today, and as expected it aroused a lot of sentimental feedback as well. This was always gonna be the case and I guess the newspaper knew it very well before it even published it. So there are two controversies here

1. Should a Indian newspaper publish such articles which are an “obvious’ violation of Indian culture?
2. Even if it is assumed that this is a free culture, are we allowed or justified to give acceptance to ‘extra marital’ affairs, or flings as the article calls it.

I am taking on the second controversy listed first. A deeper reading of the article would suggest that male cheating his counterpart is now a acceptable part of our society and now women are finding themselves “empowered” or “liberated” enough to have similar flings. So lets check if it is true? And if yes for whom, if no then probably forum opens up for the first controversy in action here.
As per a UN report 2008, 60% of married women in India face “domestic violence”, so I assume that 60% of the married women are not even empowered with fundamental right of dignity , having “liberty” to have flings is far by true a thing for these women. To actually empower these women India had this “bell bajao” movement started in 2008.

May be if this logic is not enough the below statistics will make the picture clearer
India Country Statistics - DHS

India Country Statistics - DHS
Indicator 1992/93 1998/99
Percentage of women with no education 61.5 53.5
Percentage of women with access to newspaper, television and radio 11.9
Total fertility rate (children per women) 3.4 2.8
Median age at first birth for women age 25-49 (years) 19.4 19.4
Percentage of teenagers who have begun childbearing 23.2 20.6
Percentage of married women currently using any method of family planning 40.7 48.2
Percentage of married women currently using any modern method of family planning 36.5 42.8
Median age at first marriage for women age 25-49 (years) 16.9 16.9
Percentage of married women who want no more children 25.9 27.5
Percentage of married women with an unmet need for family planning 16.5 15.8
Mean ideal number of children 2.9 2.7
Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) 78.5 67.6
Under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) 109.4 94.9
Percentage of children fully immunized 35.4 39.4
Median breastfeeding duration (months) 24.4 25.4
Percentage of women who have ever heard of AIDS 40.3
Percentage of women who know no ways to avoid AIDS 17.5

So as per the census of 2001, the total number of women ever married was 43,715,682 of the total women population of 80,546,940. To sum up
54% of the total women population is married
Out of these 60% do not even have fundamental security / freedom / dignity, which leaves me with 40% of this 54%, which is a number of 17486373 approximately. And I assume the women with “access to newspaper, television and radio “would be amongst these 40% only, and it can only be this population of women who would take a proactive step to cheat on their husbands as the article suggests.
We boil down to a population of 2098365.
Now lets check on the stats of divorces filed from 2001 in india. I am considering cases for following
1. Incompatibility issues
2. Money / Monetary issue / Dowry
3. Deficiencies / disorders
4. Desertion
5. Mutual consent for divorce
Last three will have a direct correlation with the issue in taking, but giving editor a benefit of doubt we will take the entire figure of divorces, which is 1,00,000 as per census of India 2001, which is 4% of 12% of 40% of entire women population in India.

I guess Mr. Editor, needs to explain now whether his newspaper has a base of only these many readers or have they also joined the league of “yellow journalism” and are sown to selling sex, and controversy to spice up some circulation.
On a ligher note, that is why I always said, rakhi should not be allowed to have national impact… it has ruined the intellectuals as well.