HUBBALLI-KALABURAGI: Some marriages are made in heaven, and some in hell, with a broker to boot. In several parts of north Karnataka , hundreds of girls continue to be victims of 'Gujjar' marriages or 'Gurjara maduve', "sold" to an unknown bridegroom to be abused and exploited or to be resold to brothels and elsewhere for menial jobs.The term 'Gujjar' does not refer to any community, but to this mode of wedding. The word derives from `Gujarat' which was usually the state that the groom belonged to. In the garb of marriage, several impoverished teenage girls are subjected to trafficking and harassment after being married into predominantly north Indian communities, most of them from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.Observers say while 10-15% of the marriages in the region were Gujjar unions a few years ago, the figure stands at around 5% for now. Nobody , not even the neighbours, are invited to such weddings. Only the bride's parents are present and the woman leaves with her newlywed husband imm- ediately after the marriage.Police are aware of such weddings but are powerless to act since there is no complaint.Over the last decade, though, a few NGOs have been keeping track of vulnerable families and working with police to bring the number of Gujjar marriages down.Pankaja K Kalmath, executive director and founder trustee of KIDS (Karnataka Integrated Development) Dharwad, who has played a crucial role in fighting against Gujjar marriages in the region and curbing them, said women were were being sold to buyers."It is nothing but trafficking of women," she said.So, what is the modus operandi? The grooms, from the wester n parts of the country, search for Hindispeaking brides from the northern parts of Karnataka with the help of brokers.One or two persons in a village, including women, act as agents who keep in touch with the groom's family. They keep track of the economic condition of each family in their village. Once they come across a poor family with unmarried girls, they lure the parents or guardians by promising them a huge amount of money at marriage.The "price", say sources, depends on the bride's age and looks; it can be anywhere between Rs 50,000 and Rs 3 lakh. Besides the money, the groom's family also takes care of the wedding expenses, including jewellery for the bride and her wedding trousseau. But that is where the happy wedding story ends.Meet Jafarabi, the mother of a 17-year-old Gujjar bride. A resident of Ghatage layout in Kalaburagi, she got her daughter married to a groom living in Rajkot in Gujarat five years ago. The trap laid out for Jafarabi was that the impoverished family would be rid of the financial "burden" of marrying off their daughter and would instead get money as "vadu dakshina" (bride money). Within months, the teenage bride complained of torture by her husband and inlaws. When Jafarabi went to invite her for Eid, her daughter told her the situation was getting out of hand and she wanted to retur n. When Jafarabi asked to bring her daughter back, she was told by the groom's family to cough up a sum of Rs 60 lakh which was alle g edly spent for the wedding.Scared, Jafarabi is still undecided on lodging a police complaint. "We have come across instances of many Gujjar marriages not lasting more than one or two years. After marrying girls from here, many exploit them sexually. Even other family members exploit the girl. Many victims of Gujjar marriages end up as sex workers. Only one per cent of these marriages lasts a wlong time," says Kalmath. And these happy weddings are an aberration.Even as NGOs fight to save the victims and their families, the state government needs to do more to crack down on the practice.Child development project officer of Kalaburagi, Pa- pamma Habalkar , says the department does not have the funds to conduct awareness programmes among villagers of the district to alert them against such mediators and marriages.Even in the assembly, the state government has failed to list the concrete steps taken in the matter, with minister for women and child welfare department Umashree only saying her department was "trying" to curb as many such weddings as possible.(With inputs from Mounneshwar Sonnad in Kalaburagi)

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