Towering youths of ‘Village of Giants’ get jobs, but struggle to find brides

Marhiya (West Champaran): Aman Singh, 23, wakes up early every morning, joins races with youths from his village and then spends the next two hours doing rigorous physical training at the local school ground with his sights set on defence or police jobs. Confident of securing a job of his choice, Aman is, however, grappling with an unusual concern shared by many in his village — finding a bride who matches his height.“Well, good height and a smart personality are not a ticket to suitable brides here,” said a villager.A postgraduate and standing 6.9 feet tall, Aman is the tallest youth in the village, but he is not alone. Sahitya Singh, an Intermediate student, is 6.2 feet tall; Shivam Singh, a Class X student, is 6 feet tall and Vipul Kumar, a graduate, is also 6 feet tall. Nearly 90% of the youths in the village are over 6 feet tall, a physical advantage that has helped many secure jobs in the Army and police. According to villagers, around 25 youths have joined the Army so far.Welcome to Marhiya village in West Champaran’s Lauriya block, which has earned the tag of the “Village of Giants” because of the unusual height of its youths. Passers-by stare at them, schoolteachers watch in bewilderment and competitors, villagers say, even pray that these youths fall sick to improve their own chances in defence recruitment.Villagers said the average height of youths in Marhiya is about 6.3 feet, setting them apart from those in other parts of the state. The average height of girls, however, is around 5.2 feet, according to locals. This stands in contrast to a report by the National Institute of Nutrition, under the Indian Council of Medical Research, which states that the average height of Indian men is 5.8 feet and that of women is 5.3 feet.While impressive height is often associated with confidence and personality, it has created an unexpected social challenge in Marhiya. Many families admitted they were struggling to find suitable matches for their children.Avinash Singh, a local villager who works in a sugar mill, said height had clearly helped youths secure Army and police jobs, but created difficulties in marriage. “Leave aside the struggle for brides, we also have to sweat it out to search for suitable grooms since the girls in the village too have impressive heights,” Singh told TOI.The situation appears even more striking in light of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) data for 2019-21, which shows that 43% of children under five years in Bihar are stunted due to undernutrition.Former mukhiya Sanjay Kumar attributed the village’s tall population to heredity and local conditions. “The beauty of this place is the taller population but the govt has not initiated steps to curb the unemployment crisis gripping our children. If some of them are able to get defence jobs, the credit goes to their height and talents,” Kumar said.“It is very troublesome to find a bride. Brides are not available in proportion to the boys’ height. As a result, we are compelled to make compromises and marry shorter girls,” he said, adding, “There is even more difficulty in looking for grooms.”Murari Prasad, a ward councillor, said, “Usually, we must make compromises since girls of perfect height are not available, but marriages have to be done. So we have to opt for matchless girls,” he said.Taking a lighter view, Laddu Singh, a social worker, said, “Hamare gaon me Amitabh Bachchan–Jaya Bhaduri-wali sthiti hai (The overall situation in my village resembles the case of Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri).”Md Ati Ullah, principal of the Upgraded Middle School, Marhiya, which teaches students from Class I to Class 12, said the children’s height often became a topic of discussion. “We found the children of average height during admission in Class I, but noticed they turned abnormally taller as they moved to Class 6 and 7,” he said.Though most youths in the village are tall, residents said those from the Rajput community were particularly so. Marhiya has around 300 houses with a population of roughly 2,000, and Rajput villagers trace their origin to the Kaushik dynasty.