Caste no bar for some

Not all marriages are made in heaven. Some are also organised by Natu Patel, whose organisation, Vina Mulya Amulya Sewa,  thrives in organising inter-caste marriages, including one Hindu-Muslim marriage.

For Patel believes in  finding suitable partners for matrimony. “Till now, I have arranged only one Muslim girl’s marriage with a Jain boy. However, this time around, for the inter-caste sammelan on August 11, I have bio-data of a few Muslim girls,” said Patel, who is hopeful of a change.

He further explained that while Muslim girls and families are ready for marriage outside the community, it is generally the boy and his family that usually avoid such a match. “Many still fear the community’s anger and so avoid such a match. But when such a match does take place, there is communal harmony all around.”

Besides these, Patel had even got a Dalit girl married to a Vaishnav boy through his organisation. Of course, the girl was a widow and mother of a 10-year-old boy. So, why did the boy agree to such an arranged relationship? “The boy stays in the pol area. Many girls reject good marriage proposals owing to location preference. They instead prefer Satellite, Vastrapur etc,” said Patel.

In addition, he also got two Devipujak community girls married to Vaishnav and Patel boys, respectively. The match-making took place during his picnic sammelan in December.  The sammelan will take place at the Jai Shankar Sundari Hall at Raikhad from 1-6 pm. While entry is free for girls, boys will have to pay Rs100 as entry fee.