ALAPPUZHA: While the Kerala State Women’s Commission continues to pitch for a regulation on marriage expenses, the anti-ostentatious wedding bill that Social Welfare Minister Mr M. K. Muneer had declared would be brought out, before the assembly in February 2014, has remained a non-starter.
The demand for the bill has come up again with the Commission starting a debate on the garish exhibitions of wealth by the rich.
On February 3, Muneer while responding to a submission by Congress legislator C. P. Mohammed had declared that the government would come up with a bill.
The minister admitted that Kerala’s penchant for ostentatious weddings had reached a “dangerous level”. He had said, “The government is working on how we can prevent this excessive flaunting of wealth at weddings and it would be through a new law.” But, more than a year later, the bill remains a non-starter.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, he confessed that he could not do anything in earlier assembly sessions. “I will raise it in the next session which starts on June 29," he said. He said that the government had made up its mind about the need for a law although it had rejected a proposal by the women’s panel in 2013.
The suggestions were made by the commission at a time when weddings across castes, religions and classes had become a ‘status matter’ rather than one of social practice.
The repercussions of ostentatious wedding standards set by the rich and middle classes forced the poor to emulate.
The subject was hotly debated after a study by Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad in 2006 revealed that irrespective of rich or poor, people were spending about 15 per cent of the family income on weddings.
Now a decade later, the situation is worse, reflected in the boom in multi-crore wedding centres, wedding halls and jewellery and textile businesses.
Figures estimate Kerala’s wedding industry at a staggering Rs 10,000 crore. The biggest worry is about the wastage of food at weddings.
At Christian weddings, a lunch with biryani or fried rice costs as much as Rs 600 a plate while at Hindu marriages, the traditional “sadhya” costs a minimum of Rs 150 per plate.
J. Devika, Associate Professor, Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram, and noted social critic, is of the view that the people have to be made aware of the dark side of keeping up with the
Joneses. Enactment of the law would be a deterrent, she said. “Studies have shown that families fall into the depths of penury either because of the cost of treating serious illnesses or the marriage of their daughters,” she observes.
