Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shillai (Sirmaur), September 13

Economically backward women from the remote villages of Renuka and Shillai in Sirmaur are getting married to neighbouring Haryana youths for a comfortable living.

The trend seems to be picking up. The arrangements suit youths from Haryana too as finding a suitable match from within their state is proving to be a daunting task due to skewed sex ratio.

The poverty-ridden families in the remote areas find it convenient to marry their daughters by “chunni pratha” prevalent in the plains, which involves no expenditure. The families with 3-4 girl children are finding it difficult to get suitable matches and also to bear the expenditure of marriage ceremonies in their state. They are accepting offers from Haryana, says pradhan of Dadahu panchayat Mahesh Kumar.

Suman from Gatta Dhar village of Sangrah tehsil in Sirmaur, who got married to Sunny of Rod Colony in Karnal six years back, sees a drastic transformation in her life. “Before I got married, my life was tough and my day started with fetching water from a long distance, followed by cutting of grass and grazing cattle in hilly terrain. The entire day was consumed in household chores. But after the marriage, life is good and all I have to do is to cook food”, says Suman.

“My husband helps in daily chores as we have two kids five-year girl and three-year boy and things are good”, she says. Her husband Sunny, who is a bank employee, said his cousin brother was married in Sirmaur and his bhabhi became instrumental in getting him married.

Life is easy in Haryana as landholdings are big and farming is mechanised, says a local dhaba owner Jagat in the remote Ronhat village in Shillai.

The quality of life in Haryana is better and less strenuous and girls from poor and low-caste families are getting married in Haryana as once they get married, no one asks about the caste and they get due respect. As most of the families are financially well-off, the families of girls even get financial help, said president, Central Body of Hati Samiti (Transgiri area) Pratap Singh Tomar.

There is a sharp decline in age-old tradition of polyandrous marriages but it still persists in some pockets and locals blame this tradition as one of the reasons for girls not getting suitable grooms within the district. The sex ratio of Sirmaur is 946:1000 as compared 870:1000 in Haryana.

While a majority of the girls are happy, cases of cruelty towards women have been reported. There is no data regarding the number of girls married from Sirmaur to Haryana areas but in the past two-and-a-half years, 13 cases of cruelty against women married in Haryana have been registered in Sirmaur on the complaint of the girls, said ASP Sirmaur Vinod Dhiman.

Out of the 13 cases registered in Paonta, Nahan and Kala Amb, six each were registered in 2013 and 2014 while one case was registered in 2015. Twelve cases are pending in the court while in one case, the accused had been acquitted, he added.