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Pakadua Vivah – the practice of abducting ‘marriageable’ men and frequently pressurizing them to tie the knot to completely unidentified females is an ancient tradition, still widespread in the state of Bihar, particularly in the interior regions.
To what extent this practice have been accompanied has largely stayed obscure, mainly because of the lack of data.
But as per Bihar police facts, over 3,400 youth got kidnapped for forced marriage in the year 2017.
“Around 3,405 youths have been abducted for forced nuptials in the state. In most of the cases, Pakadua Vivah was solemnised at gunpoint or threats to their life and their families,” a police representative stated.
Last month, the Pakadua Vivah of an engineer in a village in Patna hit the national headlines when he refused to keep his newlywed wife after he was abducted and forced to marry at gunpoint.
As per the facts, around 3,070 youths got abducted for Pakadua Vivah in Bihar in the year 2016, 3,000 in the year 2015 and 2,526 in the year 2014.
“In all such cases, either the youths and their parents have been forced at gunpoint for Pakadua Vivah,” police officials said.
After checking out the police evidence, around nine Pakadua Vivah has been happening on a daily basis in Bihar.
Taking the figure of escalating Pakadua Vivah’s in a serious manner, Bihar police has ordered all the regional Superintendents of Police to be watchful to test out such happenings in the coming marriage period, called “lagan” starting this month.
Mahender Yadav, an activist working in flood-prone Koshi area in northern Bihar, stated that abducting for Pakadua Vivah is not new in Bihar. It has been happening for years.
“What is alarming is that its number is increasing”.
Mahender Yadav told media that Pakaduaa Vivah is an old social crisis in the state owing to the demand for dowry.
“Girls families have been kidnapping suitable youths for forcible marriage. Families often use friends and relatives, and sometimes even hire professional criminals, to carry out abductions for marriages”.
Additional Director General of Police Vinay Kumar told media, “Most of these cases under ‘kidnapping for marriage’ category are about men and women fleeing homes for marriages. Some of these are forced marriages but there are negligible instances of marriages at gunpoint that happened in 1970s and 1980s. Some of these men and women also fled out of fear that their marriage won’t be accepted or out of fear of honour killing. It is more a social issue than one of policing. We try to do community policing, but it is up to parents and children to find a solution”.
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