This is India where marriage like relation are treated as sacred ritual, made in Heaven relations. When girl child murder are on the rise, buying bride is one new culture people following in these Western Indian states.
A few days ago a Tata Sumo, loaded with tribal belles, drove into Chanasma taluka of Patan district. Several unmarried boys from the Patel community queued up and solemnised marriages with them for Rs 50,000 each! The agent, who conducted the impromptu marriage mela, laughed all the way to the bank. He gave Rs 10,000 each to the girls' parents and took the rest. The next day, the bride disappeared with the gold and silver ornaments, leaving the groom high and dry.
After failing to find a Patel bride, Nilesh Patel (36) of Denap village in Mehsana was forced to buy a tribal bride for Rs 40,000. Ironically, the girl dumped him to marry a Bharwad boy from Rajkot against a "fee". "Patel is in a soup and feels miserable. Understandably, he does not want to spend another fortune finding a bride for his brother only to be duped," says Dhrupad Joshi of Young Citizen of India Charitable Trust.
Such marriage agents are mushrooming in parts of "progressive" Gujarat like Mehsana, Visnagar, Prantij, Khedbrahma, Mansa, Bayad of Sabarkantha district and Saurashtra owing to a forged 'bride-drought'. Consequently, Chanasma has 8,000 unmarried boys and Mehsana has the lowest sex-ratio in the state - 772 girls against 1,000 boys.
An estimate shows at least 150 agents and subagents currently thriving on bride trading in Gujarat, using tribal girls from Khedbrahma, Chhota Udepur, Dahod and south Gujarat for eligible boys in the Patel, Chaudhary, Prajapati and other communities. "The going rate is Rs 60,000 for a tribal bride, Rs 80,000 for a non-tribal girl and over Rs 1 lakh for a labour class Patel girl in Kutch," says Laloo Desai of Manav Kalyan Trust.
Desai says that agents cheat gullible clients by show-casing married tribal girls. "Some tribal girls get Rs 1,000-2,000 for just posing as a prospective bride," he says. "In Umeedpura village of Idar, a boy reportedly committed suicide after two tribal girls bought for him and his brother dumped them," says Ila Vakharia of Chetna, a women's organisation.
A few days ago a Tata Sumo, loaded with tribal belles, drove into Chanasma taluka of Patan district. Several unmarried boys from the Patel community queued up and solemnised marriages with them for Rs 50,000 each! The agent, who conducted the impromptu marriage mela, laughed all the way to the bank. He gave Rs 10,000 each to the girls' parents and took the rest. The next day, the bride disappeared with the gold and silver ornaments, leaving the groom high and dry.
After failing to find a Patel bride, Nilesh Patel (36) of Denap village in Mehsana was forced to buy a tribal bride for Rs 40,000. Ironically, the girl dumped him to marry a Bharwad boy from Rajkot against a "fee". "Patel is in a soup and feels miserable. Understandably, he does not want to spend another fortune finding a bride for his brother only to be duped," says Dhrupad Joshi of Young Citizen of India Charitable Trust.
Such marriage agents are mushrooming in parts of "progressive" Gujarat like Mehsana, Visnagar, Prantij, Khedbrahma, Mansa, Bayad of Sabarkantha district and Saurashtra owing to a forged 'bride-drought'. Consequently, Chanasma has 8,000 unmarried boys and Mehsana has the lowest sex-ratio in the state - 772 girls against 1,000 boys.
An estimate shows at least 150 agents and subagents currently thriving on bride trading in Gujarat, using tribal girls from Khedbrahma, Chhota Udepur, Dahod and south Gujarat for eligible boys in the Patel, Chaudhary, Prajapati and other communities. "The going rate is Rs 60,000 for a tribal bride, Rs 80,000 for a non-tribal girl and over Rs 1 lakh for a labour class Patel girl in Kutch," says Laloo Desai of Manav Kalyan Trust.
Desai says that agents cheat gullible clients by show-casing married tribal girls. "Some tribal girls get Rs 1,000-2,000 for just posing as a prospective bride," he says. "In Umeedpura village of Idar, a boy reportedly committed suicide after two tribal girls bought for him and his brother dumped them," says Ila Vakharia of Chetna, a women's organisation.
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