Villages relax norms so men may marry

Unable to find brides for their bachelor sons in Haryana with its skewed sex ratio, hundreds of villages in the state are breaking the stereotype by resolving to allow matrimonial ties from nearby villages, where until now marriages were prohibited.

Many Haryana villages are ushering in this reform with a hope to get brides and find a durable solution to the increasing number of chronic bachelors crossing the ‘marriageable age’ without tying the nuptial knot.

Recently, the village elders and panchayats representing at least a hundred villages in Haryana’s Jind district resolved to allow inter-village marriages by lifting centuries-old ban on marriages between villages in the block.

Eligible bachelors in a set of villages known as Panchgami will now be able to marry girls from nearby villages like Mengalpur in the same block.

The self imposed prohibition against marriages within these villages had been a part of the tradition on the rationale, or otherwise, that the ban was necessary in the interest of ‘brotherhood.’

Earlier, 42 other villages in the state under the aegis of Satrol Khap had resolved to lift the ban on such marriages.

Despite such bans becoming increasingly redundant in wake of prevailing circumstances, khaps in Haryana are still unbending on the issue of marriages within the same gotra.

There have been many cases where diktats by self-styled khaps, which often draw political patronage on account of vote bank considerations, have announced married couples as brothers and sisters.

The concern over the growing trend of chronic bachelorhood had also been a political issue in the run-up to the state Assembly elections last year.

Haryana Agriculture Minister O P Dhankar who was then in poll fray as a nominee of the BJP had even courted controversy during one of his election speeches when he ‘promised’ brides from Bihar and other states for Haryana youth who were not getting married.

Surender Singh, a native of village Khairi said the villages have resolved to lift the ban primarily since boys weren’t getting girls who could marry them.
He said the change hasn’t been an overnight process.

Often there were marriage proposals even from villages where marriages were prohibited which is what offered food for thought for the village elders.

The fact remains that Haryana villagers have often looked for brides from other states to address the problem of lack.