Samba, September 3
Wedding bells have not rung in Regaal village of this sector for the past three years. Scores of men and women are nearing 30, yet nobody from the adjoining villages comes forward to accept an offer of marriage from residents of this village.
People in this village are not “untouchables.” They do not carry any social stigma, yet they have not been able to get their children married.
Major Singh of this village says that people do come to settle marriages but within hours “the offer is rejected.” The only reason is that “our village is not safe” because of intermittent and heavy firing from across the border.
Pakistani Rangers open fire from their Chakboora, Makwan and Dandral posts and bullets “hit our houses,” he says showing several houses with bullet marks. “We do not venture out,” he adds.
Bablee says, “A go between had come to our village to negotiate a marriage. When he was returning, he was hit by a bullet and died on the spot. Since then nobody is willing to have his son or daughter married in our village.”
BSF soldiers have been patrolling the village and its adjoining areas but this has not boosted confidence among people.
According to Madhubala, most of the men and women have crossed the age for marriage. “In our village, once a boy or girl turned 18 or 20 years old, he or she would get married. But for the past three years, the boys have long passed this age.”
Balbir Singh and Purakh Singh say that there were several villages close to the border where residents are facing a similar problem.
“If this trend continues, several villages in this sector will witness a sudden decrease in population,” says Balbir Singh.
Several elderly people in villages miles away from the border say: “We do not want to get our girls married to boys in villages which are vulnerable to firing. Our daughters may get killed,” they say.
They are reluctant to get their sons married in such villages on the plea that they may not be safe on the wedding day or later when they visit their in-laws.
Since social customs do not allow boys and girls of the same village to get married, the problem has been aggravated.
Most of the village olders seem worried. “We have no solution for this problem”. They say either the government should rehabilitate them by allotting land in safer areas or take drastic measures to silence Pakistan guns.
“On the one hand we are faced with starvation and on the other hand the worry about our children eates into our vitals,” they add sadly.
