By Krishna Raj Pandey

“Finding a groom for my daughter has been a challenge”, said Sunita Sharma, a resident of New York City. She continued, “Back in the days, it was easy for Nepalese to find a bride or groom as we used to live in small society where we would know each other. Often time, we would be able to use our connections to find a groom or bride across the nation. But the times are different now; we live in a global society”.
Sunita is not the only one facing this challenge. There are thousands of people in their late twenties and thirties living in Nepal and abroad who have not been able to get married. The problem is the lack of connection.
Two decades ago, Nepalese didn’t travel much of the country. This changed in the mid nineties when the civil war broke out. As a result, millions of people, especially the younger ones left Nepal. “There was a real fear of young people to stay in Nepal during the civil war times”, said Mod Prasad Dotel, an undersecretary of Home Affairs Ministry whose office was responsible in managing the civil war crisis. “Young people would either be forcefully recruited by the Maoist rebellions or they would be perceived as Maoists and killed by the state armed forces. Battling between these two groups, the young population chose to leave the country”.
Those who could afford to go to developed countries like United States, Canada, Australia and United Kingdom went there to study. Those who would go to Middle Eastern world to save life and search for employment went there. And the third category who could not go to these places found shelter in India. The present dilemma of Nepal is that the “country looks very aged”. There are very few adults in Nepal. Most of the villages, towns and cities are full only with people who are retired. The livelihood is same for them. Their son or daughter sends money for them from abroad so that they would survive.
As a result of mass migration, now Nepalese got scattered around the globe. Arranged marriages are most common in Nepal where Nepalese parents find a suitable match for their son or daughter. Because there is no “matchmaker”, these young men and women are not getting married. Some try to broker the deal from Nepal but it is rarely a success.
NepaliVivah, a startup launched as a class project at Harvard University, is solving this problem. It is enabling Nepali Singles to find suitable matches for them. Other than NepaliVivah there is no major Nepali matrimonial website that specially services Nepalese singles. The company has grown rapidly and established itself as the leader in Nepali Matrimony space. NepaliVivah does not disclose the number of members but the company’s Director Ash Shrivastav states that there is a healthy mix of male to female ratio. “This market is underserved and we are looking for ways to help singles find the match they are looking for”, said Mr. Shrivastav.

Krishna Raj Pandey a freelance journalist. He is a Central Committee Executive member of Nepal Journalist Association and General Secretary of Nepal India Journalists Friendship Association. Previously, Mr. Pandey was the publisher and editor-in-chief of three newspapers published from Nepal – Lumbini Doot, Saptahik Sambad, Parivartan Dainik. He was one of the members of the “People’s Service Follow Up and Investigation Team” formed by King Gyanendra of Nepal to investigate government corruption and hear public grievances. Mr. Pandey headed Gandaki and Dhaulagiri Zones. He has traveled to many countries. Mr. Pandey now lives in United States.