The most popular wedding service in India is a detective (6 photos)

And you thought that the toastmaster is like ours? No, India has its own specifics, because too much in fate is at stake when planning a wedding. Plus, the holiday itself is very expensive for any family, so you can’t take risks here.





So it turns out that in the last five years, the wedding detective market in India has developed and grown incredibly.

Why do we need a wedding detective

The fact is that social norms in India are gradually changing, more and more young people insist that they will marry for love, and not by the choice of their parents, as has been the case for centuries.

And what should poor worried parents do, given that young people do not always choose wisely, and they have little experience? Do not clutch at their hearts, but investigate - did they really choose a worthy person for themselves as a partner and provide evidence with photographs and records that their choice is complete nonsense.

Why ban a wedding if you can convincingly prove that this is a dead-end choice?



This is exactly how they sell spy cameras in a boutique on the street

Wedding detectives are hired by the older generation not only with good, but also with very average earnings - all sorts of office workers, sellers in boutiques. The main thing is to protect the child from making a mistake.

Detective agencies rent offices in business centers. But they usually hide under inconspicuous signs "astrologer services". Usually superstitious Indians go to astrologers before marriage, and here they are offered not to guess, but to check how successful everything will be!





A wedding can cost as much as a year's income or even more

Many of the detectives started working as private investigators 20 years ago, but suddenly discovered that right now the business is booming. Now "fiancé surveillance" accounts for a quarter of all orders from such agencies. And all the willful youth, adding gray hair to the hair of their elders.

It's not only parents who pay detectives

The second most frequent clients of such detectives are brides. Because in India there are many such marriage swindlers – dowry hunters who are even ready to kill their wives after the wedding.



Surveillance equipment in India is in the grey area, so to speak

Men create false profiles and even lives for themselves. So one detective shared the story of one of his clients, whose groom told him that he earned about $70,700 a year. But the detectives found out that in fact he earned $7,070. He made a slight mistake in the numbers.

There are people who want to know if the groom is actually gay.

Another very striking specificity of India is caste testing. You have to dig into the family tree for thousands of years. And all because marriages that violate strict caste or religious divisions can have deadly consequences, sometimes leading to so-called "honor" killings.



A typical Indian detective, inconspicuous on the street, so to speak))

How much does a wedding detective cost

Hiring a detective can cost from $100 to $2,000, depending on the level of surveillance required.

For families who are putting their entire dowry and daughter's future on the line, this is a small investment. Considering how much the wedding will cost them.

Some want their spouses to be checked after the wedding to confirm suspicions of an affair.

Detectives themselves say that they are doing a very useful job for society - they do not allow wedding scammers to ruin relationships between men and women.



The cheapest way is to ask girlfriends to ask around and look for information about the groom

In the past, such premarital checks were often carried out by family members, priests or professional matchmakers. But rapid urbanization in expanding megacities has severed social ties, now we have to cope without a community - with hired services.