Neelam Rani was married to Gaurav Kumar for less than 45 days earlier than he left for Germany with out her, however taking all of her money and jewellery with him.

Eight years after being deserted by her husband, Neelam now lives together with her aged father and youthful sister within the metropolis of Gurdaspur in Punjab.

Neelam recalled her husband’s promise to immigrate to Germany collectively as a married couple — however shortly after the marriage, her life all of a sudden went downhill.

The 37-year-old Indian instructed DW that her husband used to physically assault her, and blame the abuse on not getting “enough dowry.”

She described “torture” by the hands of her in-laws that led to her miscarriage. 

Pursuing justice

After years of reflecting on her abusive marriage, Neelam determined to file a case towards her husband and his household.

With assist from her father, she has in search of justice by going round police stations and courts, with out success.

“I haven’t got justice till now. My body is frail because of the daily violence and torture,” she instructed DW. “My only goal is to get my culprits punished by the court of law and want my earlier life back.”

DW contacted Neelam’s husband for remark, however obtained no response.

Abandoned brides

Neelam’s story is just not an remoted one. There are a number of girls within the neighboring cities and cities in Punjab who’ve related tales of abandonment, abuse and cruelty.

Santosh Kaur, who lives in a cramped home within the city of Ludhiana, was married for less than 15 days when her husband left for the US.

Her dad and mom had mortgaged their home with a purpose to elevate sufficient cash for her marriage ceremony ceremony and dowry. Now, she is struggling to pay again the mortgage and likewise suffers from a coronary heart situation.

“My whole family went into depression, she said. “People used to make enjoyable of me by asking when is your husband coming again and when are you going with him.” 

Family pressure

In India, more than 40,000 women are duped into marrying non-resident Indians (NRIs) who live abroad in wealthy countries like Australia, Germany and Canada.

India’s northern state of Punjab is the country’s epicentre of abandoned brides. These women are stigmatized by society.

Every year, thousands of Indian men immigrate in search of a better life abroad, but they eventually face pressure from their families to return home and get married.

In India, where most marriages are still arranged by families, many parents favor their daughters marrying NRIs in the hope that they will have a better life abroad.

But this does not always turn out to be the case. Oftentimes they are left behind in India by their husbands who return to their expat lives without them. 

Helping abandoned wives

Satwinder Kaur, who runs the NGO Abb Nahi Social Welfare, provides legal and financial support to help abandoned wives. She also has personal experience dealing with the many of their issues — Satwinder’s own husband left her in 2015 after which her in-laws threw her out of the family home.

She and her team now help more than 400 abandoned wives to document their stories and pursue legal cases against their husbands, which can include having the men’s passports revoked.

“Our NGO has witnessed a rise within the variety of instances and we obtain calls each day from completely different states,” said Satwinder.

“And authorities is just not serving to these girls, if they might have helped you would not see these girls operating with aged dad and mom across the courts and police stations each day.”

Challenging times

To address this issue, the Punjab government has now set up the State Commission of NRIs to help women track their runaway husbands and revoke their passports.

Rakesh Garg, who formerly headed the commission, told DW that there are many obstacles along the road to justice.

A lack of extradition treaties with other countries makes it difficult to pursue the absconders.

Garg is pushing for stricter laws passed to make NRI husbands accountable. However, his efforts are complicated by the fact that the commission has not had a chairman for the last two years.

“Indian authorities and state governments are taking steps to handle the issues however the lacuna lies within the investigation course of, which is defective in a lot of the instances. We want to enhance this,” Garg added.

For these distressed women, frustration and helplessness have become part of their everyday lives due to the constant setbacks and delays in getting justice.

Traumatized by the sudden and unexpected collapse of their marriages, women like Neelam and Santosh are plunged into debt — with their hopes resting on the government who, at best, appears apathetic owards their plight.

Edited by: Keith Walker