According to a police report, 1870 such cases of people running for marriage in the first six months of this year have come to the fore in a love affair in Bihar. In most cases, the girl ran away with the boy.
“I have a love affair with him for four years, I have married him of my own free will. He did not bring me away, I myself ran with him.” In a video released on the social media platform, these are the alphabets of a girl whose father has filed an FIR against a boy for kidnapping his daughter.
In Bihar, such incidents have increased rapidly in recent months, in which the girl’s family members file kidnapping FIRs after her disappearance. But, when the matter gets resolved, it is related to a love affair in which the girl herself has absconded with her lover. The police are fed up with such cases.
These cases have been termed as honeymoon kidnapping i.e. kidnapping for marriage. The term was coined by the police, which they used to refer to the case of boys and girls running away from home for marriage.
The scenario is changing with time, earlier the boy used to run away with the girl, now the girlfriend is running away with the lover. She is also openly declaring this and requesting the police not to take any action against the family members of the boy in a hurry. Sociologists are bewildered by such cases going viral on social media platforms.
On average, ten girls running every day
According to a police report, in the first six months of this year, 1870 such cases of people running for marriage came to light in Bihar. If we see on a daily basis, on an average ten such cases are being reported daily. Thus on an average every two and a half hours a loving couple is running away from home.
So far this year, 2778 cases of honeymoon kidnapping have been registered. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, Bihar is at number two in this case. While there were 5308 such incidents in 2020, 6589 cases were reported in 2021.
Police officer MP Singh says, “Such cases are very disturbing. Sometimes they become a challenge to the law and order. Other states also have to go round, but when the case is resolved, then the matter turns out to be something else.
No social recognition for love marriage
Sociologists see it as the result of women empowerment. Professor SC Mahto says, “You can call this situation a kind of social revolution, which is being seen due to the increasing use of technology and the increasing literacy rate of women.
Village-village women are using smartphones and internet despite being less educated, what is this. Look back, women were not even able to say their right thing.
Journalist Sudhir K. Singh sees this as an ill-effect of the Western style. He believes that due to the proliferation of smartphones and the Internet, the youth has now started knowing everything in 15-16 years, because every good and bad thing is available on the Internet. They are getting confused by this.
That’s why most of the girls who go missing are 15 to 20 years old. He says, “Our society does not recognize love marriage as of now. Fearing localization, the girl’s parents scold, threaten her instead of explaining her. This worsens the situation and eventually she runs away from home and reaches the lover.
Psychiatrist Dr. Anamika says, “Due to the hustle and bustle of life, there is a lack of communication between parents and children. Boys and girls are under stress due to similar physical changes in adolescence, they remain more aggressive. After the scolding, everything about the parents feels bad and gradually they become rebellious.
Being emotional in such a situation, the outsider who listens to him, expresses his love, he starts liking them. His trust is built on them and then due to emotional attachment, he starts making decisions based on the feelings. He is unable to sense right and wrong. Which results in similar incidents.