Swati, Shruti and Niti are sisters presently based in Toronto, Chicago and Dubai with their families. The sisters run an unofficial marriage detective agency through which they check out the credentials of would-be NRI grooms for girls based in India.
The three sisters check out the background of boys, their job profiles and their other personal details and submit them to the girls’ families in India.
“We do not run any official agency but if anyone asks us, we do check out the boy’s background because it is extremely difficult for the girls’ families in India to ensure that they are not being duped by NRI boys. So far we have handled about 50 cases and have discovered that 28 boys were attempting to dupe the girls’ families by making false claims either about their job profiles or their salaries or their education,” says Shruti who lives with her husband and two children in Chicago.
The sisters decided to play detectives in matrimonial alliance after one of their aunts committed suicide two years ago.
“She was married to a boy in Dubai and when she went there, she found out that he was already married. She became a victim of domestic violence and later committed suicide. She did not inform her parents or even try to return home because she knew it would leave them in a state of shock. After this incident, we realised that there were many girls who are duped into marriage and since all three of us are living abroad, we decided to do some social service. Thankfully, our husbands did not object,” says Niti, who lives in Dubai.
According to their sisters, word has spread in their circle of friend and they get up to half a dozen cases between themselves. “Any parent, who wants to verify the boy’s credential, gives us his address and we make necessary inquiries. We send the reports to our parents and the concerned party can collect it from them. Initially we did not charge any money but now we take a nominal charge because we also spend money traveling to different places,” says Niti. The charges vary from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 depending on the job and the money is actually an old age income for their parents who live in Allahabad.
The sisters, however, insist that their agency, informally called “We Sisters” is not an official entity and they extend a helping hand only to people known to them.
“Our relatives, their relatives, their friends and so one are our clients and we do not entertain strangers for obvious reasons,” says Shruti.