Marriage by abduction :(

Was flipping through the channels this morning. Thanks to DTH services we are able to browse without flipping the current channel. Suddenly I saw a UNESCO program being shown. My hands stopped at seeing that abbreviation. And strangely this program was being shown on a very litle known channel called DD Bharti.

I was just casually having a look at what are they really showing over here. Slowly I began to realise this is something related to child marriage. Most of us Indians are aware that a criminal custom of child marriage is still existing in our system. But, what I saw was even worse...

Dowry is still a common thing during our marriages. In some places it is as good as a compulsory ritual.. Yes.. A big shame it is.. But this custom which is so detrimental to our society has led to the creation of another criminal custom. Somewhere in Bihar, the family of the girl child abducts the boy and forcefully make him marry their daughter, primarily to avoid the burden of dowry. I don't know if you had heard about such a thing happening in our country but at least for me it was an unpleasant revelation made by the idiot box. Not that I care less about the dastardly acts which I mentioned earlier that are happening in our country.

They were interviewing this chap who was a victim of 'marriage by abduction'. Now he was a grown up adult. Poor guy was so desperate to marry again. He was so frustrated that he didn't mind his current wife and kids staying in his house, but he simply didn't love his wife. This situation was pretty much inevitable. Unless he really liked his forcefully wedded wife. Phew.. that is when I feel really lucky to be a part of urban India.(I assume no such incidents happen in urban India). Further, I think, even arranged marriage is better. And on a serious note, to cover up for the sins I committed by making fun of this situation, this really should stop. But how, is the question.