Number of Bangladeshi nationals marrying Indians doubles in 2024: Report

In the last 5 years, 410 Bangladeshi females chose to marry Indian men in West Bengal and about 76 Bangladeshi men married Indian women.

Compared to 2023, the number of Bangladeshis getting married to Indians has doubled in 2024.

According to a report by The Times of India, until December 20, 2024, 100 Bangladeshi girls applied to get married to Indian men and about 11 Bangladeshi men applied to marry Indian women.

Accounting to 23 per cent of the 486 such marriage applications registered in West Bengal since January 2019, this is the highest number of applications filed in a year (since 2019) by people from the neighbouring country, the report said.

The number of marriage applications by Bangladeshi men and women (mostly Hindus) in 2023 was 54.

It quoted officials saying that they believe that a majority of these Bangladeshis might stay in India.

"We can safely presume that many of them will choose to stay in India given the citizenship laws," a senior official told the publication.

According to the Citizenship Act, 1955, a person can apply for Indian citizenship if he or she is married to an Indian citizen or has been living in India for 7 years before applying for the citizenship.

"This could be one of the reasons for the spike in 2024. But this can be proven conclusively after we tabulate the pre-and post-Aug 2024 applications," the official added.

In the last five years, 410 Bangladeshi females chose to marry Indian men in West Bengal and about 76 Bangladeshi men married Indian women.

According to the report which cited data from the state marriage registrar-general's office, the marriage applications are most registered by Hindu people.

Amongst the 111 applications in 2024, 79 brides were Bangladeshi Hindus, 16 Muslims and five Christians.

Among the Bangladeshi men marrying Indian women - nine were Hindus and two Muslims.

Senior officials have concluded two reasons for the rise in the number of marriage applications from Bangladeshi nationals - one is that these kinds of marriages make it easy for them to obtain Indian citizenship, and the second is that due to the Special Marriage Act 1954, the process of letting foreigners marry Indians has become easy and quick.