On February 26, 2022 Bimla Devi and Jai Kishen Pardhiya from Bamarja village participated at a community marriage in Khunti district of Jharkhand. The Sarna (tribal) couple have three children and have been living together for decades. Similarly, on March 5, the Hindu couple of Jyoti Devi and Dipak Kumar Nag from Jamhar village, parents of two children, solemnised their marriage at a community marriage in the same district. Community marriages for couples living together under the dhuku tradition were held on two days in the last week of February and two days in first week of March 2022, where 263 couples entered wedlock in accordance with their religious traditions.
The practice of living together or dhuku is prevalent not only in Khunti district but across several districts of the State. In tribal societies, both men and women have equal rights, including the right to choose a life partner, and a woman could get into a live-in relationship (called a dhuku marriage) with her male partner without their getting married to each other. A complex set of socio-legal-economic compulsions lead a sizable number of poor tribal women with almost no or little education to live with their male partners and give birth to children without formal marriage. Generally, these women (called dhukni in Jharkhand) do not have legal rights over property and other assets due to lack of social recognition of their relationship, and the need to feed the village if they want to get it socially sanctioned.
Over the past few years, community marriages like the one held at Khunti, of couples living together under the dhuku tradition are being organised in Jharkhand. These community marriages, where couples, both young and old, and with and without children, are being organised by a non-government organisation, Nimitta, and facilitated by various district administrations along with Coal India Limited (CIL) and its Ranchi-based subsidiary, the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI).
