By: Hardik Anand

CHANDIGARH: All marriages in Punjab wherein wives end up getting abandoned by nonresident Indian (

) grooms are arranged, a dissertation submitted by a student of

’s Human Rights and Duties Department has found.

Around 70% of the matches are made through matrimonial sites and advertisements in newspapers, while the rest are arranged through friends and relatives, the

found. The incidents of NRI grooms abandoning wives have been on a rise from past few years in Punjab.

The NRI police stations in the state have received 528 complaints in April 2019 so far.

The study, submitted by MA student Allisha, under supervision of Upneet Kaur Mangat, with a sample size of 35 abandoned wives, has found that as many as 57% of the deserted women were postgraduates while 5% were even PhDs. All of them had the minimum educational qualification of being graduates.

The number of cases are the maximum in Majha and Daoba of Punjab. The problem was not that evident in Malwa area. The study found that in most of the marriages, the wives stayed back in Punjab with their in-laws, who threw them out within months. “In three cases, where the wives went abroad with their husbands, they suffered domestic violence and their passports were snatched and never returned,” she said.

The government cancelling passports of NRI grooms has had no effect on them, the study found. Men whose passports are cancelled continue living abroad and are able to get their visas extended through lawyers, it was further found.

The study advocated for maintaining a database of NRI men and their matrimonial status to keep a check on the issue. It also suggested issuing twin passports to the wives of NRI grooms so that they could use the second passport in case abandoned in foreign countries.