Newindpress

Bangalore, May 30: When 23-year-old Ruchi Gupta received a proposal from an affluent NRI family based in America, the Guptas were ecstatic.

The family arranged for a huge dowry and got Ruchi married to her NRI groom with great pomp and show. After all, their daughter was going to the land of “milk and honey” where everybody these days wants to go.

But the bubble of happiness soon burst. The ‘NRI husband’ coolly pocketed the dowry and disappeared without a trace. The family did not have a clue about his whereabouts.

Ruchi is not the only victim of the growing tribe of the ‘Holiday Brides’.

According to reports from the National Commission for Women (NCW), there are nearly 15,000 women deserted by NRIs in Punjab alone.

Gujarat and Kerala with a substantial NRI population, also have a large number of battered women in need of help.

According to lawyer and women rights activist, Anitha Agarwal, most families ignore the detailed verification process that is observed in the traditional Indian matchmaking.

In many cases, men claim they hold fantastic jobs abroad, but when the wife goes there, she realises that he is either out of work or does some odd jobs, she points out.

However, services provided by various websites like www.intelius.com, www. ublicrecordfinder. com, www.usarecordssearch.com, can come to the rescue of wannabe NRI brides.

For as low as Rs 1500, these web sites run a background check and provide a report which includes age, an address history of the past 20 years, phone numbers, property ownership, neighbours and website ownership.

For an additional Rs 2,000, these websites have the capability of running thorough the state-and-nationwide criminal background checks.

Users of these sites can also search birth, marriage and death notices, bankruptcies and liens against property, and also unclaimed funds and real property records. They can also look up business associations of their fiancé. They don’t require the Social Security Number, just the first and last names are enough to find these details.

Another verification method is by looking through the community websites like Orkut, Face Book and discussion forums of which the groom is a member.

While these verification processes will not ensure that the woman will have a happy marriage, the uncertainty of moving to a new country will definitely be reduced.