I can’t marry you because you are from a polluted area. A True Story

Babu, a resident of village Devdi of Vatva GIDC area of Ahmedabad first time saw her in a marriage party. She was a pretty and confident girl. She noted his first look and replied him with a covert smile. She was not allowed to respond more than this while being a member of a conservative society of countryside of India. But her message was quite clear. Village girls simply give their consent with their slight smile and leave the rest to boy folks. After that boy has to send marriage proposal to her parents. If the boy is not so poor and almost equal to the status of the girl's family, parents of girl accept the proposal. If a boy belongs to a lower cast, earns less or not up to the status of girl’s family then girl’s parents politely refuse to accept the proposal. Most of the marriages are planned and done with the consent of

parents of both the bride and groom. It is their centuries-old traditions and they are proud of it. Things are changing in cities of India but not very steeply. Younger generation of India has explored a way-out that is called love-plus-arranged marriage where boy and girl if fall in love with each other they convince their parents to get them married.

Why they can't married?

Now let’s come to the story. Despite being a villager Babu was little broad-minded and wanted to first understand her before sending marriage proposal to her family. That is why he moved around her during the whole marriage party and eventually managed to impress her with his graceful personality and typical sturdy physique that is liked by village girls. He also spoke to her and expressed his love on next day. She was also a girl with full of dreams so she equally responded to him. Both fell in love with each other. There was no any difference with them on the basis of cast, creed and financial status. Families of both were almost equal in all social considerations but they could not have married. Parents of girl flatly refused to accept the proposal of Babu. Why?

Boy was from a polluted village

Babu lives in village that has been polluted by nearby industries for a quite a long time. So much so that most of the residents of not only this village but also of several nearby villages including Chausar, Gamdi, Ropda, Istolabad and Gerajpur are affected by industrial effluent that is being dumped into only canal of the area called Kharicut canal. Most of the industries not only dump their effluent without treatment into the canal but also put it underground to hide their crime of polluting. As a result villagers cannot use underground water because of rising level of arsenic contamination in it.

No control on industrial pollution

Villagers complained several times against polluting industries of their area but their most of the complaints are still unattended. They also blamed Gujrat Pollution Control Board of taking lenient view of act of polluting of Vatva industries. It is widely known in India that most of the pollution control boards are headed by people who are appointed on political basis. So how come they annoy the powerful industrialists of the area who happily sponsor election campaigns of political parties in such far flung areas.

He is not the only victim

This is not the story of Babu alone. According to news reports more than 200 young boys are unmarried in these villages because no one accepts their matrimonial proposal. The area is widely notorious for higher level of drinking water pollution and even families from far flung areas refuse to accept the marriage proposals of boys living in this polluted area. As a result most of the young people have no choice but to spend their life as bachelor while large number of families has shifted from here to environmentally safer areas.

Impact of industrial pollution

Experts opine that migration from polluted area is not the proper solution of persistent pollution. Government of Gujarat and more particularly Gujarat Pollution Control Board should step in to rescue the residents of Vatva GIDC area from the menace of industrial pollution. Otherwise its impact will not be simply leaving hundreds of youth unmarried but eventually it will unleash several other social crimes because of increase in count of unmarried people.