The 'price' of a bride!

In the prosperous districts of Haryana and Punjab in India, where son preference has resulted in a twisted sex ratio, human trafficking shows a different trend. The girls/young women from economically weaker backgrounds in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal are being bought in groups for ‘forced marriages’. The legal status of such weddings, of course, remains questionable.

The girls/women blame their destiny and see no better a life for themselves. For an exchange of a small amount of money – a girl is married and brought to an alien land as the ‘bahu’ (daughter – in – law). They are forced to speak Haryanvi & Punjabi (local languages) even if they don’t understand a word of it; they are forced to become wheat eaters while they have grown up eating rice all their lives. This is the part of the country where livestock costs more than women.

In a bid to buy girls for marriage, families make frequent trips from all over Haryana & parts of Punjab to hunt for girls in Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand and even Maharashtra. The cultural impact of these forced marriages is already developing. The women’s movements are kept under complete surveillance and they aren’t allowed to visit their home. I remember hearing a testimony of one such ‘bride’ who said, “At least, we have food to eat here”. Because the girls don’t understand the language, they are just supposed to say ‘yes’ to whatever the men demand.

Direct fallout of low female population and more ‘single’ males has been a rise in sexual violence against women. Even though the sex ratio is alarming in terms of falling number of girls, having a ‘boy’ is still the first choice and the villagers resort to sex determination tests illegally - If the doctor writes in red it’s a girl, if blue, it’s a boy.

Even more interestingly, local politicians in this region have been promising brides in return for votes!
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Gargi offered me to join her for an all-vegetarian potluck party organized by her colleague and friend Leah last Saturday. This truly was an amazing party for me. For the first time in DC I saw a huge table laid up with mouth watering vegetarian dishes – ‘ALL VEG’. It was fun!