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Wedding is a costly affair and some people simply cannot afford to celebrate this special experience. A mass marriage ceremony could be a solution, which is now being done in Pakistan.
The Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC), which represents the largest religious minority group in the country, conducts an annual event for one of the poorest sections of the society – Hindus, who make up a little over two percent in the Muslim majority country.
2015: A couple performs wedding rituals at a mass wedding ceremony on YMCA ground, Karachi, Pakistan.
For a decade now, the council hosts a mass wedding ceremony for couples who cannot afford their own wedding.
Apart from financial constraints, Hindu couples face another hurdle as there was no law, until last year, that regulates Hindu marriages. Many human rights activists had said this put women at risk as they do not have documentary proof of their marriage.
Pakistan's President Mamnoon Hussain, however, gave his approval to the legislation in March 2017 after both houses of Parliament passed the much-awaited bill.
Joint ceremony
The PHC held an event last Sunday in the southern port city of Karachi where 83 couples tied the knot. Sixty-two couple got married this way last year.
It not only hosts the event but also gives cash aid and gifts to the newlyweds to begin the journey of marriage.
Amarnath, president of Pakistan's Hindu Panchayat's Karachi Division – another group representing the community – lauded the council for its initiative, which he said is helping the impoverished community whom nobody is prepared to look after.
Speaking to CGTN Digital, he said 95 percent of the Hindus in Pakistan are poverty-stricken, and helping them get married is a small effort.
A lot more needs to be done, said Amarnath.
Parliamentarian and patron-in-chief of PHC Ramesh Kumar Vankwani said the community is trying to educate its members and is providing them with better job opportunities but honoring the institution of marriage is equally important.
These mass weddings sent a message of tolerance and proved that the community coexisted peacefully, he was quoted in the local media as saying.
These events are also common in the neighboring Hindu-majority India, where Muslims make up 14 percent of the 1.3 billion population.
An Indian diamond trader Mahesh Savani hosted a mass marriage for 251 fatherless brides in the western state of Gujrat in December 2017.
Local media reported that Savani has been funding and organizing mass weddings every year since 2012, with gifts worth over 7,000 US dollars for each bride.
Beyond South Asia
The Indonesian authorities organized a free mass wedding on New Year's Eve, where 437 couples tied the knot.
But the concept of a mass wedding is not linked with a social aspect everywhere, although such events are common in many other countries.
2015: A bride and groom at a mass marriage ceremony on YMCA ground, Karachi, Pakistan.
Nearly 4,000 couples got married at a mass wedding in Gapyeong, South Korea, last September.
Fifty Chinese couples got married at a mass wedding in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. The event marked the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and Sri Lanka. Reports suggest that the event aimed at promoting Sri Lanka as a tourist destination.
Thirty-four couples exchanged vows at Harbin International Ice Festival in north China last month, braving freezing temperatures in one of the country’s coldest places.
(CGTN)
