Indian weddings, a ticket to poverty

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Rajdeep Sardesai

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Bihar: In some parts of India, marriage into a good family is the ultimate social symbol - even if it's at the cost of penury.

Baleshwar Paswan lives in Bihar's Vaishali district. Till a few years ago, he was a powerful man, a local MLA of the area.

Now, however, he is left with just three acres of land on which his family just manages to survive. So what happened in these intervening years?

Paswan says his only achievement till date has been the marriage of his two daughters into repsectable families - but that he is still paying the price of his daughters' weddings for he has spent all his life's savings on meeting his married daughters' demands.

"I have to take care of my daughters and make sure that they are happy. I till land now because I have to feed my family," says he.

Marriage is the ultimate status symbol in these parts of India. If one has a daughter at home, she must be married, and that too, into a good family.

In securing this psychological and social ambition, Baleshwar Paswan has almost become a beggar.

If I don't till this land, then how will my family survive? I do this so that I can feed my family," says he.

For some Indian families, marriages are a one way ticket to a life time of poverty.