Heads up : The author of this post and his views come from a state, which is (in)famous for the astronomical dowries. It’s so (in)famous that the author never reveals community(not that this is the only reason) to friends/colleagues, for the fear that they might pull his legs so much, that the flexibility he would get (by leg-pulling) would turn him into an martial art expert. The author still has great respect for the Indian Institution of Marriage (IIM never seems to leave me 
).
Not many would deny the fact that the arranged marriages in our parents generation were a blockbuster. Compatibility is/was the key word and you could count on your fingers, the number of marriages in your family/locality that ended up in the family courts. (for Conciliation, Arbitration or whatever … the Industrial Relations in the HRM course sure had an impact). Having read some (or many as my friends would say) articles on marriage and my own observations, here’s a take on the arranged marriages.
The myth of artificial demand
“It’s so difficult to find a good match, now a days” — this is common sentence of the families who’ve eligible bachelors waiting for their turn. And especially, when it comes to a guy’s family, the sentence would change to “It’s very difficult to find a good girl, now a days”. Add to that another dialog – “The demand for girls has increased a lot” feel the well-wishers. Economics-101 has taught me the concepts of Demand-Supply to a good extent.
Here’s the data from the latest census – http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results/prov_data_products_andhra.html. The sex ratio of AP is at a healthy 992:1000 (i.e. 992 females per 1000 males).
Needless to say, most of the arranged marriages happen in the same caste/community. God (if one exists), by his intelligent design would’ve ensured more or less equal distribution of females/males in all the communities. I guess even a random distribution would’ve ensured that. So, I fail to understand where does this concept of “Demand of Good Girls” has increased comes from, given the fact that the supply of the male population hasn’t changed much. Or Is it the handiwork of the parents of the bride/the marriage brokers (in the financial world … companies/traders) who have created an artificial demand (similar to how the retail investors are fooled in the stock markets during the bubble times) ? Or am I missing something here??
I’ll continue my views in 2-3 more posts … a single post on this would seem to be too long.
Update : My good friend Kalyan has the following to say … “ ur census logic is flawed. look at the number of girls in IIMs or IITs or NITs .. number of girls getting good education and having good jobs is still far far less !. so the number of “good girls” will remain less. Though sex ratio might be comparable .. the quality of education, health, employment etc etc of many indian girls is still far far low and hence the craze for those “few good girls” “
My Take : Agreed … but with the 33% quota in the higher education, at least in the state of AP … the number is not that bad, but the craze is 
Also, I should’ve mentioned that the observations are w.r.t. the so-called Indian Middle Class families and the girls belonging to these families aren’t denied of many oppotunities.
