Paper ties

Monica Sharma 

Wanted beautiful, slim, homely girl for marriage.’ ‘Wanted smart, educated and working girl for alliance.’ ‘Wanted girl who can score good bands in IELTS and ready to settle abroad.’ This is how the trend of advertisements seeking perspective brides has changed over four decades in India. Reason: the craze among Indians to make it big in foreign lands.

Not only the “IELTS brides”, even grooms are in demand.  The trend is quite common in North India, especially Punjab and Haryana. The youngsters who cannot score themselves to get admissions to Australian universities are marrying the ones with the “right score” and the willingness to take them as a dependent to the alien country.

IELTS-qualified marriage candidates and contract marriages are the ticket to many who aspire to settle Down Under. While the IELTS scorer pursues education, his or her spouse works full time with the dream of applying for a permanent residency. In most cases, the groom side is even ready to fund the bride’s education.

The struggle to settle in foreign country does not end with finding the “right band” partner and getting admission to the university. In fact, it is just the beginning. There are domestic violence cases being reported if foreign dreams fail to take off after marriage. After landing in an alien country, “IELTS brides” start complaining of harassment, domestic violence and dowry demands. 

Surjit Kaur (name changed), studying at an IELTS centre in Chandigarh, says, “I have received many marriage proposals after being enrolled for the course. Many of them even offered to bear expenses of my study, but I declined it as I didn’t want to get into a contract marriage.”

Dr Madhumita Iyengar, group head, Initiatives for Women in Need (IWiN), says, “IWiN works for the well-being of the migrant women. Many young Indian women facing domestic violence have sought help from us. We have found that Australia’s migration programme has created a marriage-oriented visa market where bargain for IELTS-qualified marriage candidates has increased substantially.”

Iyengar says, “Usually, the incidents of domestic violence are a result of power imbalances created within a family set up, disadvantaging young married women entering Australia as a dependent spouse.”

Last year, a New Zealand tribunal had allowed an Indian woman’s application for refuge. It heard that the woman, an IELTS bride, was married on the condition that she would obtain a visa to study in Australia. Her applications for Australian and Canadian student visas were refused, following which she was subjected to physical and emotional violence in India. Later, she got a visa for study in New Zealand, while her partner was denied dependent visa.