The opening of a marriage bureau exclusively for the scheduled castes has offered a sneak peek to the deep-rooted caste divide in the Gujarati society. Several incidents of marital discord due to caste mismatch have been reported in the state,which is why Sagpan,a marriage bureau targeting only a particular section of the society,was born. Kannal Parmar is an activist working for Dalits and also the proprietor of Sagpan. He pointed out a recent incident in the Ambawadi area of Ahmedabad city. A girl with an MBA degree from the vankar caste had eloped with an upper caste boy far less qualified than her; but the boy's family refused to accept her and asked her to return to her family. "The girl's family asked me to coordinate with the boy's family after they made it clear that they would not accept the girl since she is a Dalit. Despite her qualification,the family has reasoned that her Dalit status will cause trouble in the marriage of their own daughters," Parmar said. While the state has had marriage bureaus uniting individuals of a particular caste,a bureau serving to the scheduled castes has been unknown so far. Incidents of educated girls having to compromise and settle for lesser-educated boys within their sub-caste or facing discrimination when married to higher castes triggered the idea of creating an option to bridge the gap. Gujarat,by and large,is an ultra casteist state where marriage between two sub-castes is taboo. Although SCs are still not accepted in higher castes,they can find better matches as per their sensibilities this way," Parmar added. Sagpan began in Bhavnagar six months ago on a missionary note. Till date,it has helped 10 people to marry people of their choice,and has over 100 registered members. Ravjibhai Chauhan and Jagruti Rathod,who had come together to bridge the gap between two sub-castes under the SC category,believe that acceptance is slowly seeping in. Sometimes it becomes difficult to find a suitable partner in the same caste. But in my case,I chose my wife for the sheer need to set an example of change, said Ravjibhai.
