Why bachelors of Bihar are terrified?

It is a big mistake to venture out at night if you are young, male and unmarried in the Indian state of Bihar.

Subhash Kumar, a bank clerk in Patna, let his guard down and paid the price by being kidnapped. Four days after being carried off by a gang of thugs, manacled to a bed, starved and severely beaten, Kumar found himself married to a girl he had never seen before.

His tears and offers to pay ransom led to beatings, at least until the nuptials were complete. During the marriage ceremony a rope was tied around Kumar's waist in case he disgraced the bride's family by trying to flee. But by then, the resistance had been beaten out of him.

In those dark hours, all he wanted was for the nightmare to end, even if it meant being married to a complete stranger. The next day a sullen Kumar took his wife home, vowing vengeance against his in-laws.

But, like thousands of similarly married Bihari grooms, he feared the kidnappers' vengeance. Unwilling to face more beatings, he resigned himself to marriage.

"After marriage, compliance [of the groom] is guaranteed by the kidnappers for an extra fee," said Mithelesh Singh, a political activist from near Patna.

This is marriage season in Bihar, in India's east, and it is a dangerous time for young men. Bihari social workers say excessive dowry demands by grooms has forced the parents of young women to hire men to organise such "shotgun alliances".

Bihar is among the most violent of India's 28 states, where politicians and landlords own private armies and the rule of law barely exists. Officials in the state capital, Patna, said scores of bachelors were abducted each year in the state's Gaya, Darbangha and Purnea districts and, after being beaten senseless, were married according to Hindu rites, in a custom that had gained tacit social approval.

Payment of large dowries - banned by law - is widespread in Bihar. The bride is expected to bring with her a wide range of consumer goods and presents and jewellery for her husband and family. Dowry demands often continue well into the marriage. When the bride refuses or is simply unable to meet them, she is brutally treated, at times even set on fire.

In the early 1980s such deaths became so common that anti-dowry activists forced the Government to change the law. Today, any such death by burning within seven years of marriage is deemed unnatural and the husband and his parents are charged with murder.
More than 12,612 dowry deaths were recorded across India in 1998 and 1999, the largest number in Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.

Activists in Bihar said the groom kidnapping system was well honed. Delivery by the "groom contractors" was guaranteed within days.

Middle-class professionals are among the top targets.

"Eligible bachelors are so terrorised by these enforced nuptials that many rarely ever venture out alone during the marriage season," Mr Singh said. Many even left the state.