Gender Imbalance, Marriage Squeeze and Multiple Biological Clocks: Exploring Challenges to the Intergenerational Contract in North India

Abstract

This paper maps the impact of gender imbalance on intergenerational relations in north India. It uses the idea of multiple biological clocks to understand the impact that gender imbalance and male marriage squeeze have on two categories of persons: “overage” unmarried sons and their aging parents, and the inter-generational contract between them within the family-household. De-linking the idea of the biological clock from the female body, this paper demonstrates that social understandings of bodily progression are equally significant for men, who, in the Indian context, need to marry by a certain age, and their elderly parents who need to be cared for. In north India, where family-household unit is the most important welfare and security institution for the elderly, disruptions to household formation due to bride shortage caused by sex ratio imbalance, is subjecting families to severe stress. Families with unmarried sons struggle with anxieties centred on the inability to arrange marriages for aging sons, questions of allocation of household labor, the continuation of family line, and lack of care for the elderly. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in north India, this paper explores the tensions and negotiations between elderly parents and unmarried sons concerning the fulfillment (or lack of it) of the intergenerational contract against the backdrop of gender imbalance. It concludes by discussing the various strategies available to families in crisis that involve shame-faced adoption of domestic and care tasks by unmarried sons or bringing cross-region brides who then provide productive, reproductive, and care labour.

Local self-governments and SDG-16

“…Women from Bengal or Tripura typically include chicken or fish in their regular diets, and find it quite challenging to alter their diets after such a long time. North India, where the family-household unit is the most important institution for the elderly's welfare and security, is experiencing a lot of stress due to the disruption of household formation brought on by the lack of brides (Mishra & Kaur, 2021). The families of unmarried men worry about a variety of issues, including their inability to help their sons get married when the time comes, who will do what jobs around the house, whether the family will survive and how to care for the elderly.…”

The concept of generational contract: A systematic literature review

“…Parents generally invest time and money in their children, give them care and support them in education, employment and housing. Mishra and Kaur (2021) portray this investing as an obligation that parents have. Another question is whether it is expected that these investments will yield returns.…”

“…The prevalence of the topic of the care of older persons shows the concern expressed over ageing populations and the retirement of those generations born soon after the Second World War (the so‐called ‘baby boomer’ generation), and in Chinese context, the repercussions of the one child policy. Income as a topic (19 articles) relates to the strategies of pooling resources in the family (e.g., Albertini & Kohli, 2013; Bandyopadhyay & La Pere, 2020) in terms of housing assets (e.g., Lewis & West, 2016; Lima, 2021; Manzo et al, 2019), inheritance (e.g., Izuhara, 2004, 2005), or strategies of migration (Korzenevica & Agergaard, 2017), education (McDaniel et al, 2016), marriage (Mishra & Kaur, 2021) and employment within the extended family (Lutz, 2021).…”

Cross-Region Marriages in Rural Haryana: Summary of the Existing Literature on Women and their Children

“…Significantly, the long-distance marriages that these women enter are "dowry less" and even the entire wedding is taken care of by the needy groom, thus saving the 'honour' of her parents who must be willing to marry their daughter off anyhow. Marrying daughters at the suitable age could be a matter of honor for many Indian families (Mishra & Kaur, 2021). Women, too, choose this as a migration strategy to manoeuvre to more desirable locations, taking it as a livelihood strategy for themselves (Kaur, 2004).…”

“…In north India, bachelors bring a lot of stress to their ageing parents as a family unit is the only institution of welfare and security for the older people. Families with unmarried sons struggle with anxieties centred on the shortcoming to rearrange a wedding for aging sons, questions of allocations of household labour, and the continuation of their family line (Mishra & Kaur, 2021).…”