Love-marriage and kin-support in India: Ten women's experiences of negative sanctions for entering into a love-marriage.

The purpose of this study was to examine ten women's experiences of negative sanctions for entering into a love-marriage, especially the negative sanction of reduced kin-support, and in which way this can be perceived to be of significance when it comes to women's capability to manage the challenges experienced in married life. This has been done by applying a qualitative research strategy and conducting semi-structured interviews with ten women living in one slum area of Bangalore. What I have come to notice is that love-marriage challenge the marital norm of arranged marriage, and is therefore target of negative sanctions, one of which I found is reduced kin-support or social exclusion. From the theoretical perspective of welfare regimes, India can be categorized as a failing 'informal security regime' which indicates that the family and the community are the main providers of socio-economical security. I found that entering into a love-marriage endangers the entitlement to receive security from the family in various degrees. Thus the open labor market or state will not provide sufficient security; the experience of losing entitlement to kin-support points at a more vulnerable situation when encountering difficulties in managing marital conflicts and financial insecurity. My findings indicate that entering into a love-marriage in this context, may aggravate the women’s marital life due to reduced or no kin-support, which is of significance when living as a poor woman in the slum of Bangalore