Monday, October 7, 2013

Marriage Market


“Mera yaar bana hai dulha, aur phool khile hain dil ke
Arey meri bhi shaadi ho jaye , dua karo sab milke”.

These are the lines of an old Hindi movie of 60s wherein the comedian is seeking blessings to get married early. Now we are in 2013 and situation is similar where many prospective bride grooms are struggling to get a partner of their choice and needing blessings!

 It is said that marriages are made in heaven but now the heaven is falling on bride seekers! It’s becoming extremely difficult to find a suitable match in marriage market. Many of our states like Haryana, Punjab, in North to down south of Tamil Nadu & Karnataka are facing acute shortage of brides. Situation is so alarming in Haryana, it is reported that the brides are being imported from other states irrespective of caste & creed. Down south the situation is no different and certain communities too are feeling the heat. While girls do not want to get married early, boys are getting overage. The days of ‘Khandan ki izzat’ seems to be over as the table has turned and bride side is ruling the marriage market.

 The imbalance of male to female ratio has resulted in Bride side having upper hand in certain community in South India. They are in a commanding position, wanting to know the details of grooms financial status, fixed assets, stability of job etc. even before their first face to face meeting with the counterpart. In certain cases, they also want to know if any aged people are there living with the boy (reasons are obvious). These kinds of enquiries were never in practice a couple of years back.

Not that, this was unexpected. Now, brides are exerting their rights in the bride groom selection. Not all are prepared to tie the knot with a person chosen by their parents simply because he is from known family or respected family. They have their own ideas of their life partner. Education and awareness have made them on equal footing with the counterpart. They want to decide about their own life, career and future. Majority of them are career oriented wanting to go up the ladder. They are in no hurry to get married. Many are in high position of their career and do not want to shoulder additional responsibility of running a family. Even when married, going ‘family way’ becomes a far cry.

 With the change of mindset, they have many other options like Live in relationship or prefer to remain single and later adopt a child. That explains the reason, why so many celebrities are single. Inter caste/ inter religion/ interstate marriages which were taboo a few years back is irrelevant now. In view of the tight marriage market, all options as above are being explored & accepted.

. The whole concept of marriage as an institution is undergoing a drastic change right at the moment. Awareness is the key to change and this wind of change is visible now. This change is for good, better or worse, only time will tell