Non-resident Indians (NRIs) have their work cut out if they are hoping to snare Indian brides. Thanks to booming salaries in India.
Non-resident Indians (NRIs) have their work cut out if they are hoping to snare Indian brides. Thanks to booming salaries in India and the not-so-infrequent tales of nasty surprises after marriage, Indian brides are now more likely to look for desi grooms.
“Foreign-employed grooms are no longer in demand because Indian boys are getting decent salaries,” agrees Sejal Chacha of Asheervaad Marriage Bureau in Bandra.
“We will consider a boy working abroad only as a last resort,” says Asha Jose, a housewife in Thiruvananthapuram, looking for a groom for her daughter. “When people can be sure of financial security right here, why toil in a foreign land ?” she asks.
Among the other major trends noticed in a multi-city DNA survey are a strong preference for CAs and tech professionals working in India, growing incidence of inter-caste and inter-community marriages, and a fall in dowry demands among some communities.
Another clear trend: no one wants doctors as grooms. As for BPO workers, they are not first preference, but then they tend to pair up at the workplace itself.
But the dominant theme that emerged very strongly across centres was the bear market for NRI grooms.
“Only 2% of parents in Kolkata seem to prefer an overseas son-in-law,” says a marriage registrar. “Good job opportunities and growing salaries are bringing back the best of professionals to India. So the preference for a foreign bride is coming down,”
adds Bharat Matrimony CEO Murugavel Janakiraman from Chennai.
With the growth of nuclear families, girls prefer to live closer to their parents and in-laws.
“Girls prefer to settle down in hometowns where they can take care of their families along with their in-laws,” says Smita Sheth, who runs Manpasand marriage bureau in Ahmedabad. “The craze for grooms from abroad is now restricted only to a few families.”
Many girls as well as their parents are also put off by reports of NRI grooms ditching marriages at whim.
“They are scared because in some cases the boys already have girlfriends or even wives abroad,” says Jyotika Shah, who runs a marriage bureau in Kandivli.
A Lucknow marriage broker recounts an example to make the same point. She had arranged the alliance of Neetu with Rajneesh and even organised the marriage party from the bride’s side.
Rajneesh, a software engineer settled in Canada, hasn’t surfaced for six months after he left town last July.
“He is not answering phone calls or emails. I have sworn not to arrange any more marriages with boys settled abroad,” says the broker.
“Most marriage bureaus now seem to be avoiding alliances with overseas grooms,” says Pramod Kumar Agarwal, another marriage broker in Lucknow. The few who go in for foreign grooms pick them from known families or after getting references, says H Raj who runs Face-to Face, a marriage bureau in Ahmedabad.
For those who still want a groom working abroad, the US is not the hottest destination. Australia tops the list for some, while the US comes second. Quite clearly, the lure of greenback incomes is fading.
(Reported by Preety Acharya in Mumbai, Forum Chhaya in Ahmedabad, Deepak Gidwani in Lucknow, Madhumita Mookerji in Kolkata, Don Sebastian in Thiruvanthapuram, Arun Ram in Chennai and Bhargavi Kerur in Bangalore)
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