School in India Prepares Brides For Expats

[Guest guest]

Here's an odd, rather sad, and vaguely disturbing story from Channel

News Asia. Wonder if any members might offer their comments and

opinions:

 

SCHOOL IN INDIA PREPARES PROSPECTIVE BRIDES FOR EXPAT INDIANS

 

20 July 2003

By India Correspondent Smita Prakash

 

Many wedding ceremonies in India are elaborate affairs, with

festivities continuing for a few days. Preparations for the occasion

start months before the big day. Sometimes even before bride and

groom are introduced.

 

This is a finishing school for brides. But it is a finishing school

with a unique selling proposition. It trains girls who wish to be

prospective brides for expatriate Indians.

 

The girls are groomed in such a manner that they are tailor-made for

arranged matches with prospective grooms of Indian origins who are

settled abroad.

 

The girls find nothing wrong in being coached to please a person.

Their burning desire to live abroad and thereby fulfil parental

aspirations makes them eager learners.

 

Satwinder Kaur, a student at the Finishing School, said: "We cannot

work over there because people don't speak Punjabi or Hindi or any

other Indian language. Basic language is English or any other

language. So you should know English. And these kind of institutes

help you learn and even the accent problem is solved."

 

The demand for 'fully-finished' girls is growing as more and more

expatriate Indians look back home for brides.

 

Sandeep Soni, CEO of the Finishing School, said: "Rural background

girls are not very well-educated and not very well-literate. But

their aim is to settle abroad, they just want to get married over

there. For that, they need to improve upon their personality. Like

they don't know how to talk and behave in a particular situation. So

we conduct role-play, public speaking sessions and group discussions."

 

A Hindu wedding is almost always an elaborate one. Traditionally the

Indian bride takes home a dowry, which comprises of gold and silver

ornaments and household gifts. Taking or giving dowry is a criminal

offence but the law is more flouted than put into practise. It is

accepted as an unbreakable tradition, a way of life.

 

Social awareness groups have been working in India's villages and

inner cities educating people against the ill effects of dowry. Women

are open to advice and even agree never to be part of the dowry

culture but when it actually comes down to action, community elders

pressurise them.

 

According to Hindu philosophy a woman is a devi, a goddess worth of

worship, and yet when it actually comes down to everyday life, she is

no more than a commodity. Women in india have had to battle against

social customs like dowry for decades. And the war is not over.

 

Source:

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/southasia/view/44910/1/.html