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India's IT techies lose out in work...and love

Susan Tsang, CNET Asia ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 07 Aug 2001 15:21 BST

As with techies worldwide, Indian IT engineers are facing the axe from their previously lucrative jobs. However, software engineers are also being spurned romantically.

"For the past three or four months, I have seen the majority of parents hesitating to marry off their daughters to a software engineer as they are not sure whether we will have our jobs next year," observed B. Prakyath, a 25-year-old software engineer.

Matchmaker TG Shivraj, who runs Computer Audio-Visual Aided Matrimonial Bureau, agreed. "The parents of the bride are worried," he told AFP. "They think there is no future in IT now. So they are delaying their proposals."

A further damper to the girls' ardour is the return of IT engineers to the country after layoffs. The returnees form even more competition for local techies, and are living proof that the chance to live abroad -- one of the main selling points of IT engineers in the marriage market -- can go wrong.

Women are now flocking back to chartered accountants, who have always been a popular profession as far as matrimony is concerned.

"It's a depressing scenario," said Prayath.

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