KASHMIR'S BRIDE BAZAAR

DESPERATE MIDDLE-AGED MEN IN KASHMIR ARE TURNING TO BROKERS TO FIND THEM A WIFE FOR A FEE. FAMILIES IN THE HEARTLAND ARE GIVING AWAY THEIR DAUGHTERS TO MAKE ENDS MEET

- MOAZUM MOHAMMAD IN SRINAGAR

EVERY YEAR, AS WINTER SETS IN, hundreds of Kashmiri locals board buses and flights for the plains in India. Some leave for a warmer place to run their businesses, others just to get away from the freezing winters. Fayaz Ahmad’s journey in 2017, though, was a lot more nerve-wracking. It followed weeks of preparations that included new clothes, visits to close relatives and the blessings of local clerics.

“After a decade-long wait, I had finally found a woman,” says Ahmad, a 54-year-old Srinagar native with a salt-and-pepper stubble and a bald head. “I didn’t know her, but I was extremely excited.” A daily-wage labourer, Ahmad says he had grown used to the taunts about his inability to find a bride. In November 2017, the urge to put a lid on “this shame” prompted him to travel more than 2,000 km by bus and train to West Bengal to find himself a bride. “Even my relatives’ kids had got married but here I was, unable to find a bride,” says Ahmad, choking with emotion. “It was at one such gathering that a broker offered to find me a match in Kolkata.”

Ahmad is one of many middle-aged men in the Valley who cannot find a life partner, mostly due to their social standing, physical challenges or advancing years. As is the case everywhere, families in Kashmir prefer working young men with a promising future for their daughters. This desperate search for brides has opened up doors for inter-state traffickers to hunt for young girls from desperate families willing to marry off their daughters to make ends meet.