[mindentropy]

I am from India(South) and also coming from a family where there are quite a lot of people in the medical field.

Yes it was known not to marry inside the family by our ancestors. I know several people who are suffering from various birth defects due to marrying very close and inside the family and yes it is told by the doctors.

Gotra is completely screwed up now. A system has to be taken seriously. If a person doesn't know his Gotra then he is just arbitrarily assigned one which becomes dangerous when done in huge volumes.

Also in India there are caste communities which are smaller and when they have to marry inside their families problems start cropping up.

There is a huge demand for home nurses and speech and hearing specialists in the Gulf region. This is because of consanguineous marriages very prevalent there. There are a lot of children born with mental or speech disabilities.