Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram   

`Marriage extravagance ruining many families'

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM June 26. Weddings are no longer just celebrations, but being turned into a two or three-day festivals of money and pomp, speakers pointed out at a discussion on marriage extravagances, organised by the State Social Welfare Advisory Board here on Thursday.

Leading the discussion, P. K. Srimathy, MLA, said that marriages were now a big burden on families who could not afford to splurge money on the bride's ornaments or the wedding hall decorations or the food served on the occasion.

Money worth lakhs was being spent on wedding invitation cards and the preparations alone, leave aside what was spent on the hundreds of gold sovereigns worn by brides.

The rich might flaunt their money, but many practices they start off slowly become accepted social `customs'. Many poor families are forced to follow suit when they conduct a marriage because they do not want to be seen in a bad light, she pointed out.

Weddings have become big commercial affairs in many ways that these days, many businesses were being sustained by extravagant marriages, Ms. Srimathy said.

Savithri Lakshmanan, MLA, also pointed out that many poor families ended up selling their all, including their house and property, and incurred huge debts to conduct marriages at par with the so-called social norms. Creating social awareness against the extravagance of marriages and encouraging girls to opt themselves for a quieter wedding was the only solution, she said.

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