Implications of declining sex ratio in Haryana in terms of trafficking of women for the purpose of marriage

Abstract

Deep internalization of patriarchal values is linked with the son preference in the Haryanvi society, which put pressure on women to bear sons. This son preference has disturbed the demographic balance between male and female. The adverse sex ratio has led to the shortage of brides for bachelors of marriageable age in the state. As a result young bachelors and their relatives have started going to states like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh. Bihar to find brides. So keeping this practice in mind as a result of shortage of girls in the state, a study was conducted on bachelors of marriageable age and men who had brought wives from other states. This study was conducted in four villages of Kurukshetra and Karnal districts each. These villages were selected on the basis of their total sex ratio i.e. two villages having the sex ratio above 900 and two villages having the sex ratio below 900 were selected from each district. Apart from studying some demographic indicators of these villages, various issues related to bachelors of marriageable age and men who brought wives from other states were studied. The girls brought from other states for the purpose of marriage were also asked to share their experiences. The findings indicated that bachelors of marriageable age and women brought from other states to Haryana for the purpose of marriage are facing a number of challenges which are resultant of the skewed sex ratio of the state.