Punjab, International Marriage and Wife Abandonment

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The following is taken form the page, Population and Society Vol. 3 No. 2, Nov. 2007, pp. 45-77 http://www.ipar.re.kr/journal/pdf/ps3-2-3.pdf The whole paper (a rather large file) can be downloaded as a pdf.

6. Fake Marriages

Fraudulent marriages are also rising among women in the Punjab because these apparently provide ways to get over the legalities of marriage and rising restrictions on immigration in developed countries. Punjabi women marry NRIs to get permanent residence or citizenship. There are different types of fraudulent marriages, and in one variety, parents of Punjabi origin bring their sons of marriageable age to India, get their children married in Punjab in families whose daughters are willing to emigrate to USA, Canada, or other countries in return for money,5) thus bringing their spouses abroad.

However, these marriages are without any marital binding on either side. While one party gains entry to a chosen destination in a developed country, the other benefits by getting substantially richer. In others, men go illegally abroad, live there under changed names and then return to Punjab to marry in families where they otherwise cannot because of social and economic constraints back home. Some NRIs coming to India also indulge in multiple marriages by hiding the real marital status through different means and marrying a young Punjabi girl so as to take her overseas for the sake of monetary and other benefits. The legal protections do not serve as an effective deterrent to fake marriages, and are not enough to provide quick relief to the female victims (Hindustan Times, August 11, 2006). For this the government, NGOs, and the civil society are increasingly concerned about the rising fraudulent marriages in 5) Some report suggests around US$ 25,000 per wedding is charged from families in Punjab aspiring to come to Canada in this route (Hindustan Times, 15 December 2006). It is invested in other activities like purchase of a house and other productive investments.

India in general and the Punjab in particular.

International Marriage and Wife Abandonment

Since a majority of the nearly 20 million Indian diaspora are Punjabis, it is natural that the issue of marriage and migration is more crucial for Punjab than any other state in India. It is observed that Punjabi society is in the grip of a widespread craze for international marriages for historical and contemporary reasons. Parents as well as prospective brides/grooms irrespective of their class, caste or religious background aim at overseas settlement through international marriage and emigration thereafter. These transnational marriages do not characterize average Indian marriage, as they are seen as the safest way of migrating to the Western world. They are very competitive when it comes to finding a match and are performed with a sense of urgency.

They also largely turn out to be fake ones, split fast, and possess serious long-term consequences not only for the wife, husband, children and families but also for the society and economy as a whole. In a typical overseas marriage, Punjabi men come from foreign countries, marry the unsuspecting girls in Punjab in ostentatious ceremonies, take a huge dowry, stay with the brides for some days and finally leave India for their country of residence promising to take the newlywed wives soon after their visas are processed, but finally never send for them. Instead of returning to the Punjab to take the newly-wed wife, he often sends the decree of divorce fraudulently obtained in his country of residence. Such ex-pat divorces by husbands from courts abroad, without the knowledge or consent of wives in Punjab, are increasingly becoming common. The National Women’s Commission (NCW) in India indicates that there are 30,000-35,000 cases of NRI grooms abandoning their brides in India.

Though the problem of abandoned brides is common to many Indian states including Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, the problem is much more serious in Punjab where the desire to migrate to Western countries has traditionally been strong. Indian courts and authorities can do little to check the emigrants who take advantage of legal loopholes in India and divorce the girls in a foreign land.

Holiday or cheat marriages

When divorce is not possible by the non-resident husband, long separation becomes the preferred way of deserting wives in India. Besides this, the wives who manage to go abroad in these cases are also dumped in foreign soil. In Punjab, these failed transnational marriages are increasingly referred to as “holiday or cheat marriages” and deserted wives are called “holiday wives.”

Punjab is a top concern with regard to abandonment of wives by visiting husbands, and though no official figures are available, there are 15,000-25,000 such abandoned women or female spouses in the state, according to sources within the State Women’s Commission (The Tribune, June 22, 2006; Hindustan Times, August 11, 2006; Frontline, June 15, 2007). The problem is more serious in the Doaba and Majha region6) of the Punjab than in Malwa because a large number of Punjabis from these states are settled abroad. It is estimated that more than 50 percent of cases of abandoned women are among the peasantry in the Punjab (Chohka 2006). Once abandoned these women lack everything in society-from a livelihood to social status. The break-up of overseas marriages also involve family violence, fights over the right to the custody of children, disputes relating to maintenance, sharing of marital property, protecting the honor of the wife, etc. The woes of the victims are rendered more complicated given the fact that the existing social support system, legal protection and family laws do not adequately address such fraudulent marriages and their consequences. This is not to deny the fact that men do not fall victims in international marriages. However, in most cases it is the women who are at the receiving end when it comes to marriage and migration beyond the national border.

6) The entire state of Punjab is broadly divided into three geographical regions, namely Doaba, Majha, and Malwa. The districts lying between the Beas and Sutlej rivers are included in the Doaba region, the districts lying between Beas and Ravi rivers are included in the Majha region, and the districts below the Sutlej river are included in the Malwa region. Some of the social, cultural and economic characteristics of the population in the Punjab such as the language, marriage pattern, kinship relations, agricultural landholding size, etc. are clustered into three regions. Although with time, the interregional differences are increasingly getting blurred. the women who are at the receiving end when it comes to marriage and migration beyond the national border.