Festivities minus the youth: As the young Punjabis migrate in hordes, their absence is visible in weddings and other social events

Mohit Khanna

Navroop Singh, who belongs to Fatehgarh Churian in Gurdaspur district, recently came from Canada to attend a cousin’s wedding. What struck him the most was the absence of younger family members in the baraat (wedding party). As the wedding season kicks off in Punjab, a noticeable shift can be seen in the composition of the baraat. A significant number of youngsters is missing from the festivities since most of them have moved abroad, either on study visa or to settle permanently.

Amarjit Singh Bhullar, former Professor, Department of Economics, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, has done extensive research on the migration patterns of youngsters from Punjab to Canada.

Overseas migration trends from rural punjab

• As many as 4.78 lakh people from Punjab left the country for employment from January 2016 till 2021. During this period, 2.62 lakh students left on study visa. The figures, presented in the Lok Sabha by Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan, warn about the emerging demographic crisis in the state.
• A recent study conducted by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana — ‘Overseas Migration from Rural Punjab: Trends, Causes and Consequences’ — analysed the trends of migration from rural Punjab from 1991 to September 2022.
• The study found that among communities, it were the Jat Sikhs who topped the chart of migrant households, with the largest share of 51.88 per cent.
• The study reveals that around 95 per cent of youngsters who have migrated from Punjab villages are satisfied with their decision to move abroad. What’s more, 91 per cent of the immigrants’ parents have expressed satisfaction over the decision of their children to move abroad instead of spending the rest of their life in Punjab.
• The study, conducted by Prof Shalini Sharma, along with Prof Manjeet Kaur and Assistant Prof Amit Guleria, from the Department of Economics and Sociology, PAU, is based on primary data covering 44 villages in 22 districts.
• The researchers first conducted a census survey of 9,492 households. A total of 640 migrant and 660 non-migrant households were interviewed for the study.

Starting with Partition in 1947, he says, Punjab has witnessed sweeping migration over the past 75 years. The numbers, which picked up in the 1960s, have been steadily growing since the pandemic. More than 1.42 lakh students left the country in 2022 and close to 87,000 bid adieu to Punjab in 2023, he adds. Bhullar says the Canadian economy has benefited immensely from the inflow of international students. In 2022, they contributed an estimated $22 billion to Canada’s GDP. According to him, the increasing number of young individuals pursuing studies abroad is reshaping the dynamics of traditional celebrations. He predicts that the time is not far when weddings will start taking place overseas.

According to Bhullar, the hike in rentals, interest rates and paucity of jobs in Canada have led to youngsters looking for other options like studying in the United Kingdom and Australia. But the rate at which the Canadian population is ageing, policymakers would continue to invite younger immigrants through Canada’s multiple immigration pathways, including granting permanent residency (PR), he says.

“The high cost of living in Canada is making survival tough. Many Punjabis have taken huge loans to go abroad. They find it difficult to return to India to attend a wedding as it would mean extra expenditure. Instead, the weddings are streamed live on YouTube and Facebook for them,” says Navroop.

Besides weddings, this change is visible in sports melas and cultural events, which are struggling to maintain the lively atmosphere that youth participation brings. Jagroop Singh Jarkhar has been organising youth sports events for the past 25 years at Jarkhar village in Ludhiana. Voicing concern over the challenges he has been facing lately in organising such events, he says the dwindling participation of youth has impacted the vibrancy of large-scale sports melas in the region.

“I urged my son to visit the village from the US to host the tournament, but he expressed reluctance due to his tight schedule. In the surrounding villages, a considerable exodus of youngsters in pursuit of a more promising future has left a void in the community’s social fabric,” says Jarkhar.

Meanwhile, many are finding it simpler and financially viable to marry their children abroad instead of having them come back for the wedding. Lakhwinder Singh, a resident of Amritsar, returned recently from Canada after conducting his daughter’s wedding ceremony in Brampton. Both his sons had migrated to Canada five years back while his daughter left the country two years back.

“Similar to my situation, the children of my friends and relatives are now settled abroad. The essence of marriage is to commemorate youthfulness. With only the elderly left here and many facing medical complications, I decided to plan my daughter’s wedding in Canada. If we had chosen to celebrate the wedding in Punjab, a significant number of youngsters in the family would have missed the event, since besides my children, many of their cousins would have had to make a special trip back home. Spending a considerable amount on air tickets, shopping and travel seemed unnecessary. Therefore, the groom’s parents and my family decided to solemnise the wedding in Canada itself,” explains Lakhwinder Singh.

Barjesh Kumar, who manages a store specialising in wedding dress material in Ludhiana, has expanded his business with establishments in Surrey and Brampton. “Since a lot of youngsters are moving to Canada, we have established our presence there too. Our two stores there are managed by my daughters. The elder one is overseeing the operations in Surrey while the younger one attends to customers in Brampton.” The entrepreneur adds, “We also provide shipping services for suits, sarees and dress material from India.”

Writer, poet and cultural activist Gurbhajan Singh Gill has a different take on Punjabi weddings losing sheen. He sees it as more of a cultural issue because of the influence of social media and commercialisation. “Children in urban as well as rural areas are reluctant to participate in family wedding functions alongside their parents. They prefer visiting malls, nightclubs and to engross themselves in managing their social media accounts,” he says.

Valid point, perhaps, but no one can deny the stark reality that Punjab’s youth brigade is leaving for good in hordes.

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