Poverty makes tribal couples to opt for live-in relationship

Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh): Nimli Bai (49), of the villages of Duglai in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat district, still nurtures the dream to tie the nuptial knot with her live-in partner of two-and-a-half decades in traditional Baiga tribe marriage. Unwittingly, she had set a trend in her village by going for live-in relationship with Jitiaram (52) as the couple was too poor to afford the expenses of a traditional marriage then.

Many couples, struggling to make ends meet, in the tribal village later followed her footsteps by shunning traditional marriage and going for a live-in relationship. “Which girl does not want her marriage to be solemnized in a traditional way? I still dream to marry him (her live-in partner) in customary marriage of my tribe. But we are still in no position to bear the expenses of a marriage”, an emotionally-struck Nimli, mother of two teenage sons, told this newspaper on Friday.

The remote nondescript village under Baihar tehsil, famous for its high quality sal forest, has since then witnessed proliferation of cases of live-in relationships among the couples. "As many as 23 couples in the village are staying together without a traditional marriage. Many of them have grown up children. What options our young boys and girls have been left with, but to go in for a live-in relationship when their parents cannot afford to get them married because of poverty?

"Our clan members living in other villages aren't ready to marry their daughters or sons in our village, because of our poor financial condition,” Sangiaram, a village elder, said justifying his decision to give a stamp of approval to the social change being witnessed in the village, courtesy poverty. “Live-in relationships may be endorsed in our village, but they are viewed as a social stigma among our fraternity in other villages”, another village elder said.

Around 100 Baiga families live in the village, nearly 60 km from district headquarters town of Balaghat. The villagers depend on the forest for their livelihood. They collect fuel wood in the forest to keep their kitchen fire burning. Tendu leaves and mahua flowers collected from the forest continue to be their seasonal earnings.

“Depleting forest cover has also hit them financially pushing them towards poverty and misery. Besides, the traditional tribal culture which had made them socially and economically self-reliant earlier has of late been exposed to modern culture eroding their traditional self-reliant economy, leaving them at the mercy of outside forces and markets,” Prof.S.N. Choudhury, the HOD of Sociology in Barkatullah University, told this newspaper

The young boys and girls belonging to extremely poor families in the village have chosen their partners and gone in for live-in relationship since they cannot  bear expenses of a traditional marriage in which feasts for the community have to be thrown and bride price has to be given to their respective fathers-in-law as per Baiga customs.

According to ethnologist Naresh Tiwari, serving mahua liquor to the community members invited for the occasion is mandatory in a Baigar traditional marriage.

No money for marriage  

• Tribal boys and girls of Duglai village opt for live-in relationships unable to bear expenses of a traditional marriage 
• As many as 23 couples are presently staying together without marriage
• The village people are shunned by their fraternity mainly due to the practice followed here The government has floated a scheme in which marriages are conducted free of cost, but the tribals are unaware of it
• Depletion of forest cover has also affected the village people who depend on forest produce for their livelihood