Arranged marriages turn into semi-arranged in India: UN

While arranged marriages remain the norm in India, they are evolving into a system of semi-arranged marriages giving women more freedom and making them less vulnerable to domestic violence, according to a UN report.

The report, "Progress of World's Women, 2019-20: Families in a Changing World", however, blamed economic liberalisation in India for the spread of the dowry practice to more communities and the celebration of pricy, ostentatious weddings.

The report, which dealt with several aspects of marriage, said: "The practice of arranged marriages remains commonplace", but, "the practice, however, has evolved over time and has been partially replaced by semi-arranged marriages, particularly in urban areas".

In semi-arranged marriages, "families are involved in suggesting potential matches, but women choose whether to marry and who to partner with" in contrast to the traditional parent-arranged marriages where women often have little say and meet the groom only on the wedding day, the report said.

"Women in semi- and self-arranged marriages are three times as likely as those in family-arranged marriages to exercise agency on key areas of decision-making - including on expenditures, when to have children (and how many) and contraception - and twice as likely to be able to visit friends and relatives unescorted," the report said.

"Those in semi-arranged marriages are also less likely to experience marital violence compared to those in traditional parent-arranged marriages", it added.

The report was prepared by UN Women, the world body's group for gender equality and empowerment of women. Releasing the report, its Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said that there was a concerted effort to deny women their rights "in the name of protecting 'family values'."

But she said: "This report counters that pushback by showing that families, in all their diversity, can be critical drivers of gender equality, provided decision-makers deliver policies rooted in the reality of how people live today, with women's rights at their core."

The report said that despite feminist campaigns and legal prohibition, the practice of dowry was spreading.