2014-02-25/Groom kidnappings

title/short::Groom kidnappings Unlike kidnappers who normally extract ransom, his tormentors made an unusual demand: marry a girl waiting patiently at a decorated venue in Saharsa village.
 * when: when posted::2014-02-25
 * author: author::Sanjay Pandey
 * source: site::Al Jazeera
 * topics: topic::marriage topic::India
 * keywords
 * link: URL::http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/02/groom-kidnappings-blot-india-bihar-2014218115419409842.html
 * title: title::Groom kidnappings: A blot on India's Bihar
 * summary: Poor and unable to find grooms for their daughters, many still seize men at gunpoint in what is known as pakadwa shaadi.

Sonu had little choice. He married the girl, as was demanded of him. "Once the marriage ceremony was over, the girl’s family was assured that there was no escape route for me," he says. Whoever said marriages were made in heaven was wrong. For Sonu, it was a nightmare.

Hundreds of others like him are pushed into such nightmares annually in Bihar at gunpoint. Locally known as pakadwa shaadi (marriage by kidnap), the state recorded 2,529 of them in 2013, compared to 1,337 in 2009.