Unsuitable Girls

In Kharkhoda, a town in Haryana, the Bagri sisters face an unusual dilemma. They are too well educated to get married.

The Bagris belong to a Scheduled Caste community in Haryana. Ruby, the eldest sister, is 29 and has an MA (in Hindi and Sanskrit) and a BEd degree. Rachna, 27, has a diploma in computers and has done a beautician’s course as well. And the youngest, 25-year-old Jyoti, has a BA degree, a BEd, and after pursuing an MA in Literature, is now pursuing an MA in Political Science. She also heads the primary section of a school in the town.

In Kharkhoda, a town in Haryana, the Bagri sisters face an unusual dilemma. They are too well educated to get married.

The Bagris belong to a Scheduled Caste community in Haryana. Ruby, the eldest sister, is 29 and has an MA (in Hindi and Sanskrit) and a BEd degree. Rachna, 27, has a diploma in computers and has done a beautician’s course as well. And the youngest, 25-year-old Jyoti, has a BA degree, a BEd, and after pursuing an MA in Literature, is now pursuing an MA in Political Science. She also heads the primary section of a school in the town.

If you thought these credentials would count as assets in the marriage market, think again. They have actually made the girls ‘unsuitable’ for marriage. According to the girls, SC/ ST families are not keen on ‘over-educated’ daughters-in-law who they feel will start bossing them around. They are also not keen on girls who will want to work after marriage. The sisters have decided not to settle for less than what they deserve. They’ve decreed that their potential grooms should be better educated than them and should have stable government jobs. Besides, the girls will not even dream of marrying someone who asks for dowry. And the few men who have come with proposals have not qualified.

After a recent experience that Jyoti went through, they have even given up the hope of marrying beyond their caste. The mother of one of her students felt that she was a perfect match for her nephew. And the boy was smitten as well.

When it was time for them to meet her parents and seal the alliance, they discovered she was of a Scheduled Caste. “I never saw them again,” says Jyoti.

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