Attending the Mopin festivities at Aalo, Minister Power and Industries, Tamiyo Taga had touched a nerve when he impressed on keeping a check on expenses while celebrating festivals.

It is true that the otherwise simplistic indigenous society in the recent years has been celebrating its festivals in an extravagant manner. Largely fuelled by renewed a sense of upholding culture and tradition, a growing affluent and working class community members donate generously for festivals to create buzz and impression. Such lavish celebrations frankly were never part of indigenous society. Such over the top celebrations are a waste of precious money— which could have been well utilized for funding education, healthcare etc.

It is ironical that we do not donate quite as generously for other more important issues confronting society.

The average Indian tends to spend more on rituals and celebrations even if he has to beg, borrow or steal. Given this scenario, a Bill in the Lok Sabha seeks to put a limit on the number of guests to be invited and dishes to be served in weddings to check “show of wealth” and wants those spending above ₹5 lakh to contribute towards marriages of poor girls. Its logic— these days, marriages are more about showing off your wealth and as a result, poor families are under tremendous social pressure to spend more.

Despite being regularly celebrated in Bollywood films, glitzy Indian weddings have been blamed for putting pressure on poor families to borrow money to finance garish ceremonies and meet excessive dowry demands. Campaigners believe these pressures are the cause of many 'dowry murders’ of new brides and debt-related suicides of farmers in rural India. They believe many female foetuses are aborted because of family fears of high wedding costs - sometimes up to ten times their income.

But practical reasoning says that it is really stupid to limit wedding expenses. The economy as a whole will suffer, if everybody in India follows the new law. Wedding Planners, caterers, organisers, Wedding Hall owners, etc will lose business and not be able to contribute to the economy.

But the point which is being driven home is that good money is going down the drain.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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