Pakadwa Vivah, also known as forced marriage of men after abduction, is an old social problem in Bihar. The primary justification for this practice is demand for dowry.
Families of girls have been kidnapping suitable youths for forcible marriage. The relatives of a bride’s family often use friends and extended family, and sometimes even hire professional criminals, to carry out abductions for marriages.
Forced Marriages For Men During Lockdown
No reason can be valid for kidnapping any human and forcefully getting him/her married without consent. Shockingly, kidnappings of eligible grooms continued being reported from across the state of Bihar, even during the six months of COVID-19 induced lockdown.
Nearly two thousand cases of kidnapping were registered in different police stations in Bihar’s 38 districts between April and September 16, 2020 – the last day of lockdown.
As reported by The News Express, Niranjan Kumar (name changed), 20, was allegedly kidnapped in Begusarai district for marriage while Rupesh Kumar (name changed), 22, was kidnapped for marriage in Vaishali in 2020 amid the lockdown of COVID-19.
As per data available, below are the number of cases registered during lockdown:
- 81 in April
- 139 in May,
- 305 in June
- 301 in July
- 286 in August
- 344 in September
Prior to the lockdown, from January to March, a total number 910 cases of kidnapping for marriages were registered where:
- 270 cases were reported in January
- 304 in February
- 336 in March
The National Crime Records Bureau Report confirms that Bihar is at the top in the country when it comes to the abduction of above 18-year-old males.
As per official data of police department, following are the official kidnapping of Men cases registered over the past decade:
- 2010: 1704
- 2011: 2326
- 2012: 3007
- 2013: 2935
- 2014: 2533
- 2015: 3001
- 2016: 3075
- 2017: 3400
- 2018: 4317
- 2019: 4498
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Uttar Pradesh NCRB Rape Report 2019｜57% Cases Account For Rape On Promise Of Marriage
While taking and giving dowry is a crime in India, and rightly highlighted by media to curb the menace, the intimidation of young Men through the practice of Pakadwah Vivah hardly gets media attention. In most cases, even if these reports are published, they are coated with a layer of Anti-Dowry justification.
Men’s Rights are Human Rights and #MenToo have full right to choose their life partners. While feminists organisations focus so much on ‘consent’, sadly they never call out or highlight these cases of endless sufferings of the other Gender.
UP Police officer also tweeted the below on December 28, 2020, however, soon deleted the tweet from his timeline.
Read one such case below where a man was receiving threats from his former in-laws, even after the court annulled the marriage.
ALSO READ –
http://voiceformenindia.com/in-the-news/bihar-engineer-marriage-annulled-by-patna-court/
http://voiceformenindia.com/in-the-news/ndtv-manika-raikwar-jabariya-jodi/
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