People's Democracy

NRI Marriages: Problems, Causes & Remedial Measures

Rajinder Kaur Chohka

RECENTLY, in cooperation with the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), the National Commission for Women (NCW) took a very important step by organising a two-day seminar at Chandigarh to discuss the problems relating to the NRI marriages and thereafter. The move came at a time when woeful stories of deserted young girls by their NRI (non-resident Indian) grooms are increasing day by day in Punjab. 

ROOT CAUSES OF THE PROBLEM

As is widely known, numerous fake marriages are taking place because of the allurements thrown by agents, the greed sake of dollar and the desire to settle family members in foreign countries; these are the root causes leading to such marriages. 

True, migration to foreign counties is nothing new for the Punjabis who began to go out to foreign countries since the late nineteenth century. However, the brave Punjabis who migrated to North America and South Asian countries were in the forefront of the struggle to liberate India from British imperialism and took an active part in the national liberation movement. Many of them were hanged and many put behind the bars. 

However, now under the changed scenario, influenced by the globalisation policies adopted by the Indian government, the problem of NRI boys marrying girls and then running away is becoming more and more menacing. Punjab is becoming a source state as well as a transit state for the trafficking and/or forced migration of young women. Not only has the government (in its hunger of the dollars and pounds coming from the NRIs) failed to check such marriages; it has also failed to pass a law enforcing compulsory registration of NRI marriages.

Search for resources for a better life has been the human endeavour throughout history, and man has always been moving out in search of livelihood or better prospects. In the past, the changing socio-economic conditions of Punjab forced many of its inhabitants to go out to foreign lands because agriculture, the peasants’ traditional base, did not remain economically viable. Punjab had had more than 65.5 percent people living in the rural areas and depending directly or indirectly on agriculture. This forced the Punjabis to go abroad for better livelihood. But this need to migrate became in course of time a craze for going abroad, and thus began the exploitation of many social ties under the influence of a money-minded culture. This is what today badly affects the social relations in Punjab.

CRAZY DESIRE

This craze to go abroad is being exploited by travel agents also, many of them fake ones, leading to Malta-like tragedies. On the one hand, many of the Punjabis have developed an unhealthy, almost mad preference for NRI grooms for their daughters. There is also the additional crazy desire that one would be able to settle some family member(s) abroad after the marriage of one’s daughter. Because of this mentality, parents from middle class strata go ahead to arrange their daughters’ marriages with NRI youth without even verifying the background and antecedents of the latter. 

As it has turned out in many cases, many of these NRIs are already married and have children. In some cases, there is a big gap in age also. Moreover, they come to India on a short trip only, in order to allure and exploit some young girl. Such grooms not only sexually exploit the girls but also demand handsome amounts from their families. Some time after the marriage has been solemnised, such an NRI husband proceeds back to his adopted country, living behind his newly-wed wife on the pretext that he would call her there very soon after making the necessary arrangements. However, in most cases, after waiting for years together, the girl finds that her ‘husband’ has only exploited her sexually, ravaged her modesty and left her to her miserable destiny for the whole life. In some cases, a groom takes the girl with him abroad, where her life is made miserable. She has to work days and nights, often like maidservants, her passport and other papers are taken away from her, and she is oppressed no end by the groom and his family. She is beaten, tortured and humiliated. She can’t raise her voice as she is new to that country, is away from her parents, and there is nobody whom she knows and who can help her in such a miserable condition. 

There are hundreds of such instances in which teenage girls were married to NRI grooms, many of whom were of their fathers’ ages, with the only intention that their girls’ sacrifice would pave the way for other family members going abroad and improving their economic conditions.

ILLEGITIMATE SYSTEM, ILLEGITIMATE PRODUCT

In Punjab, incidents of such exploitation are on the rise at an alarming rate, especially in districts like Ludhiana, Nawan Sahar, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Moga, from where very large numbers of Punjabis are settled in foreign countries. Not only that, if such cases were earlier heard about the grooms living in the USA, Canada, UK and other European countries, similar frauds are now being perpetrated by those working in the Gulf countries and other Arabian countries. Districts of Ludhiana, Nawan Sahar, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar are now on the top in respects of such heinous incidents.
The exploitation of girls by NRIs is facilitated by so many factors. More than 50 percent cases are reported by the peasantry, and some 25 percent by middle class families. The main reasons for this social tragedy are the socio-economic conditions of the peasantry in Punjab, the ever-rising level of unemployment and the westernisation of social relations, which together provide a fertile ground for such incidents. 

Besides the lack of a strong law and of awareness among the young girls, which makes it all the easier for the NRIs to perpetrate the fraud, such cases are also kept hidden from others for fear of being stigmatised. 

The Janwadi Istri Sabha of Punjab, an affiliate of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), has brought many such cases to public knowledge, and with its help destitute girls and their parents were to initiate legal action against the culprits. But, as we all know, our legal process is extremely corrupt and time consuming. Many a time the culprits go scot-free due to the lack of an effective law. Though the phenomenon is an illegitimate offspring of the illegitimate system of capitalism, the deteriorating condition of our peasantry is making it flourish. Unemployment is another reason behind such tragic happenings. 

The Janwadi Istri Sabha of Punjab has been waging a relentless war against such social vices and organising rallies, seminars and meetings involving women in order to educate them against such deceivers. It has also been asking the parents not marry their daughters to anyone blindly, without verifying the antecedents and family background of the prospective bridegrooms. Also, whenever such an incident occurs to a family, its head and members must not feel shy of exposing the deceiving NRIs and taking help from or giving help to other families in calling the bluff.

SUGGESTED MEASURES

1. The Janwadi Istri Sabha of Punjab feels that to check such happenings, an NRI who wants to marry a girl in India must be asked to provide before marriage his detailed bio-data and other information, duly attested by the government of the country of his residence.

2. Registration of an NRI groom’s marriage, solemnised in India, must be made compulsory.

3. In case such a marriage is solemnised by a religious institution with the performance of religious rites, that institution must be made to check beforehand the identity of the groom and also his of his witnesses, and also issue a certificate of marriage.

4. The law of the land must be recast in such a manner as to empower the girl’s family to stand against such injustice and exploitation. A special cell of the police force must be there to effectively provide justice to the aggrieved family.

5. An FIR must be registered in the police cell especially created for such cases involving NRIs. The police must be made to act speedily in such cases.

6. A public awareness drive must be initiated against such social evils and the deceivers must be exposed.

7. Due legal, financial and other required assistance must be provided to such victims. There must be a strong and broad-based women’s movement against this evil so as to save the innocent and young girls in Punjab from falling prey to this evil.

8. Indian embassies in foreign countries must be made more cooperative in these cases so that culprits can be prosecuted immediately in India.
   (Rajinder Kaur Chohka is general secretary of the Janwadi Istri Sabha of Punjab. This write-up is an edited version of her paper presented at the NCW’s siminar on NRI marriages, held at Chandigarh.)