Patna: The demonetisation drive launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought a pleasant change in Bihar, prompting “dowryless” marriages in the state infamous for dowry-related crime.

As many as three such marriages were reported from across the state in the past one month since the government launched the demonetisation drive on November 8.

In a latest incident, a wedding was solemnised for just Rs11,000 (Dh599) (eleven thousand only) in a northern Bihar Sitamarhi district with the entire cost borne by the groom’s side.

As per reports, the marriage of Mukesh Kumar who hails from Sitamarhi district was fixed with Kajal Kumari from neighbouring Muzaffarpur district recently.

Just before of the wedding, however, the bride’s family requested postponement of the wedding as they were helpless to welcome guests due to severe cash crunch.

Subsequently, the groom’s side asked the bride’s family to rush to their home where the marriage was solemnised on the scheduled date of Sunday with barely Rs11,000 spent over the entire arrangement.

“I had never come across such a marriage in my whole lifetime,” Nagendra Prasad, a social activist who was witness to this ideal wedding, told local media.

Barely two days ago, a similar low-cost wedding was solemnised in eastern Bihar’s Katihar district with no dowry paid to the groom family and the entire marriage expenditure costing only Rs1,100.

In this case too, the marriage of Sarswati Kumari, daughter of Yogendra Sahni, was fixed with a local youth Raj Kumar but the currency ban suddenly cast a shadow.

As the bride’s family found it hard to finalise all wedding arrangements due to cash crunch, the groom’s side advised them to keep the function simple.

So finally when the wedding procession reached the bride’s home on Friday last (December 2), guests were treated with only tea and some sweets.

Another wedding was reported from Patna district where a bank officer had his marriage performed at a Hindu temple with the local rural women being the guests. Only a few members from the groom’s family joined the wedding which was solemnised for barely few hundred rupees.

Social scientists have welcomed the pleasant social changes on the ground, albeit compulsorily. Changes look quite significant given the fact that Bihar remained only the second state in India reporting the maximum number of dowry deaths in the past three years, as per an official report.

As per the report, around 25,000 women were either killed or committed suicide due to dowry harassment by their in-laws between 2012 and 2014 with Uttar Pradesh (7,048 deaths) reporting the highest number of deaths followed closely by Bihar (3,830 deaths). This information was provided to the Lok Sabha by federal minister Maneka Gandhi.

Apart from this, around 30,000 cases of dowry were registered during the same period under Dowry Prohibition Act.