Illustration by Suman Choudhury

In a beautiful brown and red velvet box, with two hearts embossed on the cover, Bharti Singh has preserved what is left of her marriage. Inside lies a glossy wedding album where, dressed in shimmering red bridal finery, she looks the perfect match for her NRI husband, preening in a white suit and a red pugree.

They spent a month together. Then, he left for Toronto with a promise to take her there soon. That was two-and-a-half-years ago. Now, the 22-year-old woman from Jandi village in Punjab?s Hoshiarpur district has nothing but photographs and memories. And, a two-year-old daughter Jasleen, who has never seen her father.

A few lanes away in the same village, Mandeep Kaur has a similar story to tell. In 2000, she married a migrant employed in an Amsterdam restaurant. After the wedding, he demanded Rs 2 lakh to buy a car. Her family obliged but hasn?t heard from him since April, 2003. ?Last year, he got married to another girl from a village near Jalandhar,? she says.

Bharti and Mandeep are not isolated cases. Rather, their plight is emblematic of a major social affliction in these rural parts of northern Punjab. They call them the holiday wives ? women languishing in their parents? homes after being abandoned by their NRI husbands following a brief stay together. Some runaway grooms want more dowry. A few are illegal (kaccha) migrants too busy running from the law. For an unscrupulous minority, it is cruel business.

Many such cases go unreported; hence figures are not easy to compile. But Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, whose Lok Bhalai Party has often raised the issue ? back in 2002, he got 60 MPs to petition the Union government ? puts the figure as high as 15,000. ?A generation of children without fathers is growing up in Punjab,? he says.

The problem is acute in the doaba region, of which Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr are the worst-hit districts. In 2004, the two districts alone accounted for about 40 per cent of the recorded cases. Last month, a study group set up by the Union human resources development ministry visited Hoshiarpur and met 20 victims. The group is expected to submit its report within three months.

Big-time migration to different parts of the globe started around the Sixties. ?Smaller land holdings was an initial reason,? says Sanjiv Gupta, inspector-general of police, Punjab. ?Later it was all about imitating your successful neighbour.? Around the Eighties, the great NRI groom bazaar started as the sons of these migrants came back to look for brides.

And despite newspaper reports of brides being used and dumped by their husbands often hitting headlines, the NRI grooms continue to be in demand. Says local journalist Khushwant Ahluwalia, who has written extensively on the subject, ?Marrying into an NRI family is an easy form of social mobility.?

Rajesh Kumar, who runs the Shivalik Marriage Bureau in Hoshiarpur, says that more than 50 per cent parents prefer the dollar groom to a local one. Marriages are usually settled through bichauliyas ? relatives or friends acting as middlemen. In many cases, the prospective groom is an illegal migrant. But checking out the authenticity of the groom?s passport, visa or job is not a priority.

Many parents ignore the perils because such a marriage enhances their social status and facilitates future migrations for the family. ?All that matters is the visa stamp,? says Hoshiarpur-based police officer Ram Prakash.

Quite a few live to regret the decision. Many grooms turn out to be wife-beaters, even frauds. But court convictions are rare. Mandeep?s husband married another girl last November and told a relative of hers: ?She can do whatever she wants.? Such impunity comes from the knowledge that the law can do little but file FIRs against them. ?Even a dreaded terrorist is rarely extradited. What are the chances that an errant husband will be extradited?? asks cop Gupta, who also heads the NRI cell.

As a deterrent, the police are exploring the possibility of declaring such cases as rape. In Hoshiarpur, the lawmen have set up a women?s cell of the Community Policing Resource Centre, including an NRI helpline, which works for reconciliation between the two families. ?Sometimes, either the dowry is returned or a divorce is worked out. Occasionally, the boy takes the girl with him,? says advocate Tejinder Kaur, who counsels the victims in the same centre.

Experts recommend that marriages involving NRIs be registered with a cell and a website documenting such marriages be set up. Ramoowalia feels that after the marriage, every groom and his family should file an affidavit with the sub-divisional magistrate. ?Every passport should have a page with details of the marriage, including the photo of the bride,? he says.

Everybody acknowledges, though, that only a change in mindset can end the menace. During a meeting with such victims, Belu Maheshwari, local co-ordinator of the HRD ministry study group, was surprised to find that even those beaten up by their husbands or his family wanted to join their husbands.

Not surprisingly, the phenomenon has grown into an industry. The Punjab National Bank branch of Hoshiarpur alone has Rs 243 crore in its coffers, much of it repatriation money. During winter, when most NRIs descend, huge marriage halls charge upto Rs 50,000 per day. Hotels in Hoshiarpur bustle with NRIs; the suites are always full. And the most in-demand wedding car is a six-door silver limousine on a daily rent of Rs 10,000.

But those who have burnt their fingers have a word of caution. ?Think twice before marrying an NRI. And do so only after extensive investigation,? says Gurjinder Kaur of village Dhamiya Kallan. Her four-year-old son Manvir often dreams about his absconding father. ?One day, he will get me an aeroplane and we will go together,? the boy once told his mother. ?Tell me, what do I tell him?? she asks.