| News Details |
| Alluring marriage patterns of nomadic Gujjars and Bakerwals in Kashmir Himalayas | |  Jammu, January 26,(Scoop News)-Tribal Research Foundation (TRF) in a survey report on the marriage pattern among nomadic Gujjars and Bakerwals in the state has highlighted some of the gripping traditions prevailing in the community like 42 percent approve of “Kadhu”, abducting a girl or a woman for marriage.
“62 percent of Gujjars and Bakerwals want to have two marriages while 18 percent of them wish to have three to six wives in their lifetime”, the report suggests. However, “the tradition is on a wane now”, it says.
The scheduled Tribe Gujjars form 16 percent of the state’s population and the study was conducted among a mixed sample of 100 people belonging to both nomadic Banhara and Bakerwal community members residing across the north Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Incidentally, 40 percent of these Gujjars and Bakerwals still continue to pursue a nomadic or semi nomadic life.
The report further reveals that 42 percent nomad Gujjar’s favour “Kadhu”, abducting a girl or even a woman, regarded a matter of stouthearted and bravery to marry a girl or a woman of one’s choice. But 39 percent, particularly elders, express disapproval of the same as an anti social act.
According to the report, about 89 percent of nomadic Gujjars arrange the first marriage of their children between 14 and 18 years, while 72 percent girls are engaged to their relatives at the time of their birth up to the age of six years.
78 percent of community members are against to “Kharchi” system, wherein the groom’s family pays full costs of wedding to the bride’s family describing it against Shariat while five to ten percent marriages among nomadic Gujjars are arranged in a hurry by abducting a girl or a married woman with their consent.
Interestingly, no one among the community is allowed to remain unmarried for his/ her whole life.
The report says that 88 percent nomad Gujjars and Bakerwals spend up to rupees fifty thousand in their wedding ceremony and remaining 12 percent spend up rupees one hundred thousand and is proclaimed as a “grand wedding”.
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