In the Hindu calendar, it is the wedding season.

‘Pakadua Vivah’ or forced marriage is a regular occurrence reported mainly from cities of Bihar. Many people believe that the recent incidents are the only ones in Bihar, but that is where the problem lies. This illegal ritual has been going on for a long time, but because no one ever complains and there is no action taken on the few complaints that are filed, this crime goes unnoticed.

An incident took place, where a man was kidnapped and forced to marry a girl at a gun point.

In the Patepur police station region of Bihar’s Vaishali district, a freshly hired teacher of a government school was forced to marry. Before this incident, the Patna High Court ruled against forced marriage on 18th November 2023. Fortunately for him, the teacher was rescued by cops, who arrested Brij Bhushan Rai on abduction charges. Rajesh Rai, the bride’s father, and three others reportedly escaped. Kumar gave a statement regarding the incident at a local court. His relatives worry of revenge from the bride’s family.

But the teacher is not the first victim to ‘Pakadwa Vivah,’ and he is unlikely to be the last. According to local experts, there are many occasions where the bride’s family is stronger and the groom’s family remains terrified.

Putting Pakarva Vivah to Light.

This practice of forced marriage by kidnapping, also known as Pakarva Vivah, is common in the city of, Bihar, and is simply a way to an end in which the father or brother/s of a woman kidnaps an eligible bachelors and forces him to marry the woman with a gun pointing towards his head. In addition, the groom and his family are told that if they do not accept the marriage and treat the girl well, they would die.

According to elderly people, the main reason for this was because people were unable to marry their daughters to employed men due to being unable to pay dowry. They wanted to marry their daughters in a good household, therefore they started this kind of marriages.

Earlier, ‘Pakadwa Vivah ‘ was organized as a social action, but as criminal gangs got involved, people began marrying their daughters to boys after kidnapping them with the help of criminals. This tendency is claimed to have fallen totally into the hands of criminals around 1990.

Bihar reportedly lacks of educated and employed men. Even though this practices still exists, there are very few cases that come to light these days. People believe that marrying off the daughter will relieve them of their burden.

An arrest or two won’t be enough to stop other families from abducting suitable youths for marriage.

SOUMYA EVITA LEPCHA

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