‘Policing love’: Why couples could now be thrown in jail just for living together in India

In the first of a two-part series exploring an Indian state’s controversial new laws governing every aspect of people’s personal lives, Shweta Sharma meets cohabiting couples in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, who could now be fined or imprisoned for not publicly registering their relationship status

A couple sits outside a college in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, where a new ‘uniform civil code’ has been passed by the BJP government (Shweta Sharma/The Independent)

Latika and Ankit don’t want to get married. It is a personal choice for the couple, who have been dating for over three years and feel, like millions of other young people in love around the world, that the institution of marriage might change the dynamic of their relationship.

They prefer to live together as cohabiting partners, and have been doing so for the past two years – a situation that, bizarrely, could see them thrown in jail thanks to a new bill that became law this week and may eventually be rolled out across all of India.

It stipulates that unmarried couples wanting to live together must publicly register their relationship, and threatens fines and prison sentences of up to three months for those who fail to do so.