Matrimonial sites have taken over the Indian matchmaking market from the time Shaadi.com and Jeevansaathi.com came into the running. And how can we even forget ‘Seema aunty’ from the Netflix series ‘Indian matchmaking’ who gave a drastic turn to this play?
All these websites had caste-based divides where you can choose the caste of the desired individual. They also had a space to define the color, height, weight, etc. of the person.
More recently, two websites were launched that were exclusively made to create education/degree-based divides. Named IITIIMShaadi.com and Faangshaadi.com, these websites help individuals find their matches from premier universities/companies of India that are ‘intellectually compatible’.
IITIIMShaadi.com is an arranged marriage matchmaking website that aims at bringing together all the individuals from India’s topmost institutions- the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIM).
Faangshaadi.com, on the other hand, brings together people from top technology companies. FAANG stands for Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google. It only focuses on these five companies for matchmaking.
These websites are facing a lot of backlash from the public. They are called ‘elitist’ and ‘offensive’ as it is creating an unnecessary divide amongst the people.
It seems that a benchmark is created for being intelligent, elite, or in simpler words ‘different from ordinary’. The tagline of IITIIMShhadi.com is “Alma Mater Matters” which seems to have caught the public eye.
Read More: Will Shaadi.com Be Starting Matchmaking Services For Indian LGBTQ
The educational divide that these websites are creating is making success look like a very narrow concept of just scoring good marks and getting into top-grade colleges. But there is no reason to believe that mental compatibility depends on the degrees. It is a very segregated view to reducing the idea of marriage to one’s social standing or educational background.
In India, where there is a need to overcome societal discrimination, this education-based divide is adding to the long list. It is giving space to people to think of marriage as a job agreement where qualification matters the most. Education does play an important role, but it cannot be used as the sole basis of marriage.
IITIIMShaadi.com became controversial when people came to know that the founder of the website- Taksh Gupta does not belong to any of these institutions. He is from SP Jain School of Management. Furthermore, Karan Johar, the brand ambassador of the website, neither belongs to any of these nor is married.
Similarly, the founder of FAANG does not work in any of the FAANG companies. These facts gave a humorous turn to the issue on Twitter. Someone tweeted “Do the selected candidates have a GD?”
The culture of India is changing every day. There is an expectation from the new generation that it will bring some positive amends to it. But such initiatives are just making things worse.
What do you think about it? Let us know in the comments section below.
Disclaimer: This article is fact-checked
Sources: Twitter, News18, IndianExpress,+More
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This post is tagged under: IIT, IIM, Matrimonial, Shaadi, Twitter, Backlash, IITIIMShaadi.com, FAANG, education, elitist, offensive, technology, divide, cultural barrier, caste, matchmaking, degree, social status, matrimonial, facebook, amazon, google, apple, netflix, amends, job, top tech universities, society, new generation, social divide
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