Assuming people choose to get married this way, my point solely was around what does one need to test when such marriages are being arranged. I do not see any virtue in a virginity test and which again is just for women. An HIV test probably atleast is a health test that makes sense when a marriage of this kind is involved, where trust, love & faith are not factors but “compromise” on either sides just to get the “married” status.

Sunitha, as Sharanya points out, all medical tests should require the consent of the people involved. One way of dehumanising people is to treat adults like children or dumb cattle. Just because they are poor doesn’t mean they don’t know what they want / don’t want / are okay with.

Another good point raised is, of course, the sheer sexism involved in only testing the women.

Going beyond that, as Priyanka and Apu point out, is what I see as two root evils — one is their poverty and disenfranchisement which made them vulnerable to this sort of violation, the other is inordinate importance given to marriage in our society (and dowry). The latter while closely linked to economics also goes beyond that. For the poor, it’s a double burden. As Priyanka points out, it’s horrible that the govt is promoting the mindset that a woman must get married at any cost and we are complicit with this — would the money spend on these mass marriages be better spent in education / employment schemes for these women? Why does marriage have to be so important that even state benefits must revolve around it?

Even if someone were to be absolutely anti-feminist, anti-women, anti-people-making-their-own-choices, even if someone were dogmatic-fundamentalist-protectionist-male-chauvinist and hymen-fixated and so on, I can’t bring myself to understand how they could approve of “virginity as a prerequisite for marriage” in a country where there has been no history of criminalizing/convicting child sexual abuse. Doesn’t that happen? Doesn’t that destroy what these people are so bothered about protecting? What discourse would they employ to these victims, these women who simply had no choice?

plus, wonder if that meant widows too would be disqualified?

Horrible story, but believable. It comes down to a basic thought– Is privacy of the individual respected in India? Perhaps there are pockets in society where it is, but for the most part?
No, it isn’t. And the more you move away from the Center (which in India is rich, male, upper caste) the more your privacy is infringed upon. Good luck if you’re poor and female then. The scariest part of this story is

1)that Rs. 6,500/- was worth it, in the end, to the women who agreed to go through with it despite having reservations
2) the disenfranchisement of these women, who are raised to be dependents from birth and thus are at the receiving end of f*cked up strategies from both their community and whichever government agency shows up in their city/town/village.
2) that the existing social structures in India still allow for things such as “government-aided marriages” and dowry, itself. It’s come to the point where it’s so endemic that we– the we that write about social issues, the we who follow news articles, that vote intelligently or try to, who volunteer at NGOs and write research papers and present at conferences and we the public, this vast collective– have chosen to live with it. For the most part. Or at least, as long as dowry cases don’t turn violent. Because it’s exhausting. Because perhaps, there are more important and time-sensitive issues to address, and win small successes within the existing structure. I’m not quite sure.