The Netflix show Indian Matchmaking shows how deep arranged marriages run in India. Ideas about the exercise as told in the show have often invited memes and social media trends. But far from the privileged world of 30 Indian-Americans, this is no laughing matter. For many in the hinterland, disobeying tradition can have dire consequences.
Recently released data by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows that taboo relationships, especially in teens, can put you in a protracted battle against your family. Of the 98,860 alleged victims of kidnapping rescued last year, 13.7% had actually run away or were in a romantic relationship. The “kidnapping/love affair” was one of a few types of “kidnapping”, indicating agency on the part of the alleged victim. Most of the cases involved young girls, far from the big cities. Another 24% of kidnapping cases were for marriages, which can include extortion as well as extortion.
Young couples fleeing from the family and community are charged under the provision when abusive parents—usually girls—learn about the crime. A 2019 study by Partners for Law in Development (PLD) found that teens do this to avoid the distress that comes with – condemnation, abuse, threats and imprisonment – when parents are involved in their relationship or premarital pregnancy. Let’s search for. Some forcibly run away to avoid marriage.
Madhu Mehra, one of the study’s authors, said that taboos turn conversations with the opposite sex into secrecy, and when such romances are discovered, “running is the only escape”. Patriarchal stigmas and taboos against female sexuality as well as caste hierarchy are compelling. He said the parents should file criminal charges to protect the alleged ‘honour’ of the girl, retaliate against the male partner and take back her custody.
young lover
In 2014 and 2015, journalist Rukmini S analyzed sexual harassment lawsuits in local courts in Delhi and Mumbai for The Hindu. She found that between a quarter and a third of cases whose trials ended in “parent-seeking” against youths with whom their consenting daughters had eloped, most ended in acquittals. The average age of the complainants was 16 years; The girls often retracted in courts or said that they ran away because they were in love with the alleged kidnapper. There were cases of many inter-caste or inter-religious couples whose parents opposed their relationship.
The NCRB data also showed that 80-90% of cases considered as kidnappings were filed on behalf of “victims”. More than half were on behalf of girls under the age of 18, even accounting for girls’ total. There were a third of kidnapping victims aged 16-18.
child marriage
The NCRB classifies a case only on the basis of the highest offense alleged in the FIR. Young men on the run are often charged with harsh rape charges, while anti-child marriage laws, with no minimum punishment, are relatively rarely enforced as the highest crime, even though the National Family Health Survey says that 23% of women aged 20-24 were married at an early age. Only 1,050 cases were registered in 2021, with child marriage being the highest number of crimes, while 7,907 children were abducted because of kidnapping or “love affair”.
Even when the child marriage law is enacted, more than 65% are against participating couples and not against forced or arranged child marriages, as in a 2021 PLD conducted Other studies show. The study also showed that two-thirds of the cases were initiated by the families of girls. , The good news is that the judicial outcome was favorable for girls or couples in 49 out of 57 cases.
runaway girls
Meanwhile, there is also another type of “kidnapping” that may involve the agency of the victim: 6,971 minors – about 70% of them girls – were “victims” of “kidnapping”, where it was found that they took their own home. had left. Will happen or be “scolded” by parents, the NCRB data shows.
The higher share of girls may be due to the higher tendency of girls’ parents to file complaints. It also highlights the same social attitudes that also translate into migration. The expectation of homework by girls is only one of the many reasons that result in dropping out of school and poor social relations.
“Welfare interventions such as residential schools, safe transport, cash stipends and food are essential to ensure access to secondary education for girls from disadvantaged backgrounds,” Mehra said. “Furthermore, taboos against female sexuality must be dealt with, and sexual consent must be restored by age 16 to free consent from crime among young people close to the legal age.”
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