MUMBAI, INDIA, November 11, 2011: A growing number of Indians are hiring private detectives to check up on a prospective bride or groom’s character, sexual history and finances before marriage. Agencies say they’ve seen a huge rise in pre-matrimonial investigations to check a suitor’s background, because more people are meeting online and families are less involved.
Pre-matrimonial investigations are increasingly common. There are around 15,000 such companies across India. The private investigation business is not regulated in India. “It is neither legal nor illegal,” says Rai, who adds a bill has been going through the Indian parliament for some time in an attempt to create a set of guidelines for the industry.
“It’s not spying, we just wanted to know about my sister’s boyfriend before she married him,” says Anita (not her real name). “Earlier in India with arranged marriages which were set up by the family, relatives would know about a partner, but now you don’t know if he’s married or has children or whatever, so we needed to hire someone to check all this,” says Anita, adding her still-happily-married sister never knew about the detectives.
Anita turned to the services of Veteran Investigations, a Mumbai-based agency which has been carrying out “pre-matrimonial” checks for more than 40 years. The vast majority of enquiries come from parents who want to assess the “character” of their future son-in-law, says Rahul Rai, who runs the agency.
The nature and scope of investigation depends on the moral or cultural values of parents. Someone from a more traditional Indian family might want to check up on whether a bride or groom drinks or smokes. Others might be keener to learn whether there are any past relationships, something which can still be frowned upon in India. Conducting a review of a groom’s financial dealings and business assets is also common.