Friday, November 17, 2006

Marriage Portals: Mere Money Machines? In Focus - Bharatmatrimony.com

What’s your idea of a marriage portal? Cool? Friendly? Pleasant? Have you ever wondered about these adjectives, rather? Marriage portals can be obnoxious, irresponsible and dangerous! The portal in focus: Bharatmatrimony.com.

The profile of Mr X in Tamilmatrimony.com, a unit of BharatMatrimony.com was copied word-to-word by another member, Mr. Spurious. Clearway has evidence to this in the form of e-mail interactions with Bharatmatrimony.com where Mr X represented the issue to the portal and expected a response and some action. The first of such interactions occurred in the first half of October 2006. As of today, no action has been taken to bar Mr Spurious or to cancel his account.

Well, what’s the big deal about copying a profile? To put things in perspective, Mr X says he loves taking risks and he conveys the implicit message that he is honest in what he says about himself. And Mr Spurious says the same, using the same set of words. Mr X loses nothing when some stupid copy-pastes his profile. The loser would be the girl who trusts the profile of Mr Spurious as true and her family who arrange for her marriage with a fraud who steals words to project himself as a candid enterprising individual. If you were a parent or a guardian of a loving daughter, would you want to see her married to a rogue?

Clearway’s charge-sheet: Parents trust Bharatmatrimony.com with the lives of their kids when they post and browse for profiles of prospective brides and grooms. It is Bharatmatrimony’s responsibility to screen through profiles and prevent the cheats from luring women into the vicious webs they weave. Now that they claim to have entered some record books for the number of marriages that they have arranged for, it is a question worth asking if they really are worried about the Quality of marriages that they facilitate, as much as they do about the quantity. Perhaps, they believe in revenue rather than in sincere service?

If Bharatmatrimony doesn’t wake up from its coma and realise what’s at stake, Clearway will take every step to make sure the portal sits up and listens. And this is a message to every other irresponsible website that wouldn’t care any less for its patrons. A link to this post will be sent to Bharatmatrimony.com for its reference. Clearway awaits a response.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hai Krish,

Please get in touch with me at plsenthil@bharatmatrimony.com so that we can analyse in this regard and proceed.

Best Regards,
Senthilnathan

Lidia said...

Hey!
Coming from a western mindset - and i know it's not often right - i don't really agree with internet marriages in general. I think the internet is dangerous and i would rather meet someone face to face than date them online. But hey, the world is entering an internet age and who am i to say what's moral or immoral, dangerous or completely safe? I guess the only thing parents can do in the end is choose VERY carefully and not put their eggs all in one basket! Still, it's good your passionate about the issue!
-Amy

Krish said...

Hi Amy,

"I think the internet is dangerous and i would rather meet someone face to face than date them online."

Agreed.

"the world is entering an internet age and who am i to say what's moral or immoral, dangerous or completely safe?"

I Disagree. The world's entering an internet age and your being or not being in a position to judge and have a say are totally unrelated aspects. Irrespective of where the world heads, you always have a say over any issue and take a stand.

In this case, if I take up the responsibility of arranging for a marriage and providing a platform for people to interact, I believe I am accountable for the information I provide. And it definitely is my responsibility to act when someone points out a discrepency in my database.

"Coming from a western mindset - and i know it's not often right - "

Need not be so. Right or wrong are dictated by the beholder's perspective. If you meant you may not be viewed as being right by me, well, you *may* be right :-)

"I guess the only thing parents can do in the end is choose VERY carefully "

Very true.

With great power comes great responsibility. Marriage portals are becoming popular by the day - they can't act as if they are doing mere business and pat themselves in their backs on having entered some record books.

Clearway's chargesheet stays.

Unknown said...

I feel that this is a silly post., Risk is everywhere, Just because of seeing some stupid guy copying some guys postcant be a proof of the description entered.
Lol., More than this, If a girl marries a guy seeing just a stupid description entered, she is just a idiot.,
Even for offline marriages indians like us do a serious background check, the same should apply for online also.,

Regards.,
Prasath.s

Anonymous said...

Marriages are said to be made in heaven and such websites are not cupids, but just portals which connect the needs of people with regard to matrimony.
These portals do the services of a matrimonial classifieds which you find in the newspaper in the electronic way. A person on the lookout of an ideal partner, must not be so desperate to allow people to view all of his/her emotions in the name of a profile. He or she must restrict his or her description in such a manner, that it is ambiguous enough and at the same time can invite lot of proposals to choose from. When it comes to security issues its not just Bharath Matrimony that one should corner and confront as miscreants are omnipresent.

Connecting people for their needs and customising the website for their clintele, by itself is quite a task.

Lastly, a product is made the best only by its patrons. So, people who have been successful in getting ideal partners through this portal, can also help its development by dishing out suggestions for the betterment of websites. Also, an individual should strive more for his or her own security rather than tossing away the responsibility to the portal or blaming it for the same!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I feel the portal should not be blamed as such. I know Bharat Matrimony have a very good system of cross checking.

When I put up my profile in their site, in less than a week's time, they called up my home and made enquiry as to my education, job and salary.

Matrimonial sites are not detective agencies to keep track of every movement of the registrant. Always the onus is on prospective bride's / groom's family. The job sites only act as effective bridge to bring prospects together.