After those thousands of references to the Gujarat Model, Modi’s home-brewed version of Gujarat Shining, it comes as a shock to hear that Gujarat is home to 6.29 lakh men above 30 and 40 years who are unmarried – according to Census 2011. What’s more, they are not single by choice. Gujarat’s skewed sex ratio has finally come back to bite the patriarchy because with a ratio of only 919 women for every 1000 men, the bachelors are finding it a tad difficult to find a Gujarati bride, mainly because the men now outnumber the women.
This is based on a TOI story, titled ‘Sex ratio kills honeymoon dream in Gujarat’. This is not exactly sad news per se. In fact the story headline makes it seem a little amusing. And there surely wouldn’t be too many women sympathising with these men. In fact, the first thing that comes to mind is ‘serves them right!’. Our male dominated society should have thought of this before they all decided that girl children are a burden and killed millions of baby girls, either in the womb or in the cradle.
What’s more, Gujarat is not alone in facing this problem. Four years ago, The Telegraph reported of an astonishing news where men from the Gounder caste in Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu, are now looking to Kerala to find their brides. The reason – generations of female infanticide has given rise to a very skewed female sex ratio, 625 girls for every 1000 boys.
Today there are few young women of marriageable age in Gounder villages. After years of searching, while the caste’s bachelor population entered their 40s, they finally ‘relented’ and decided to marry outside the caste in Tamil Nadu. But even this proved difficult.
Finally, desperate wedding brokers looked to Kerala, where thanks to emancipation, the female sex ratio is 1058. The only condition these girls had was that the groom must undergo an HIV test, mainly due to Namakkal’s notorious reputation for its HIV-infected truck drivers.
It’s a slightly amusing story, but there is a lesson our society can learn from this. In fact, the irony would be that despite all those times when activists shouted themselves hoarse that it’s wrong to murder girl children, most people still went ahead and did it. But now, that their sons cannot find brides because of their own practice of female infanticide, they suddenly realise the folly of their ways. It’s irony, come a full circle. Or as we Indians call it, karma.
Image Courtesy: BCCL
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