PUNE: Warkaris hailing from Jalna, Aurangabad and Parbhani talukas of Marathwada, narrated their woes as the region is reeling under drought-like conditions. They are unable to marry off their sons due to uneven sex ratio. There are 935 females per 1,000 males in Jalna taluka of Aurangabad district as per 2011 Census.
Pandharinath Navange, a warkari from Tadegaon village of Jalna district, shared the difficulty in his son’s marriage. “Since our village is drought prone, families from the neighbouring villages or from other districts are not willing to have a marriage alliance with our family. My son is now 34-year-old and many girls have rejected the marriage proposal.”
Another warkari, Raosaheb Misal from Janephal village of Jalna district said that 70 per cent of men in their village is not married. The main reason for this is the drought and non-availability of civic facilities.
Shrikrishna Bahlekar from Nipani village of Aurangabad district said, “The number of girls is less than the number of boys in our village. But the girls are looking for more educated boys. They have high expectations from future grooms. Since boys do not get proper education and do odd jobs, they are rejected by girls.”
Ramrao Rathod from Pardari Tanda village of Aurangabad district said, “My daughter is in Std XII now while my elder son has not even completed his primary education. My son says that he is not interested in studying as he can do any job. But my daughter says that she wants to become an engineer.”
Warkaris from Malshiras taluka are also facing the same issue. Laxmi Jhanje from Medad villages of Malshiras taluka said, “Water scarcity has been haunting us for several years now. My daughter is in Std VI. She goes to school, which is 5 km away from our village. She also does all household chores.
Jhanje said that his daughter wants to get married to a person, who is a government employee or has a monthly salary of around Rs 50,000.
Rukmini Mane from Kusmod village of Malshiras taluka of Solapur district said, “We have finally found a bride for our son after seven years. My son is 37 years old now. The bride is seven years younger to him. The expectations of girls are high. My son did not continue his education after SSC. The bride is also SSC drop out. Therefore, she agreed to marry him.”
CENSUS DATA
- The sex ratio in Aurangabad stood at 923 per 1,000 as compared to 924 as per 2001 census. The average sex ratio in India is 940:1000 as per the 2011 Census. According to the 2011 Census, the child sex ratio is 858 girls per 1,000 boys as compared to 890 per 1,000 in 2001.
- As per Census 2011 of Jalna district, Jalna had a population of 19,59,046, of which male and female populations were 10,11,473 and 9,47,573, respectively. In 2001, Jalna had a population of 16,12,980, of which 8,26,903 were males and 7,86,077 were females.
