Mass marriages can prevent suicides, says charity chief

Marriage expenses which are often considered as one of the reasons for farmers being indebted and committing suicide for not being able to pay off their loans, should now be a thing of past. In order to stop suicides in Maharashtra, the charity commissioner has come out with a novel way to strike at the very reason.   

“Committees have been formed in every district of the state. The idea is that mass marriages can be done of people who cannot afford it,” said Shivkumar Dige, charity commissioner. 

Committees will have members of charitable trusts, mainly religious institutions of all faiths. The trustees themselves would be heading the committees. “A few days ago I read that a girl committed suicide in Marathwada because her father did not have the money to marry her off. Farmers and people in villages are often said to commit suicide because they cannot marry off their daughters, or pay of the loan or due to indebtedness. Since marriage is a big expense, we thought why not do something about it. We do not want such things to happen. 

One of the reasons to fund the mass marriages is to plug suicides,” added Dige. The commission looks to conduct approximately 3,000 marriages in a year. 

Dige said that some meetings in districts had already been held. “In our meetings with trustees, they would say that a large amount as fixed deposits was lying unused in banks. We thought that these can be sued so that mass marriages can happen,” said Dige. 

Commission said that no amount was as yet decided that has to be spent on each marriage. “Only more than 10 marriages will be considered as mass marriage.”