After Latur girl kills self over debt, Maratha community to do away with lavish weddings

KOLHAPUR

: The umbrella body of the Maratha community,

Maratha Mahasangh

, approved a new code of conduct recently, paving way for curbs on

lavish weddings

.

Over 40 Maratha organisations passed a resolution seeking to end some customs that involve huge expenses during weddings. The organisations met in Kolhapur last week to discuss issues affecting the community, which forms over 30% of the state's population.

The organisations said the incident of a 21-year-old Maratha girl from

Latur

committing

suicide

last month to ease the burden on her father to meet dowry and marriage expenses had spurred the change. Vasantrao Mulik, Kolhapur district head of Maratha Mahasangh said, "We have observed that financial burden of the marriage is mostly on the bride's family. The status symbol of lavish wedding needs to go as the poor from the community try to imitate the rich, bringing on financial debt," he said. The new code urges the community to do away with the practice of taking out a huge wedding procession and puts restrictions on food portions and delicacies presented.

The code also calls for doing away with matching horoscopes and emphasises on the need for blood tests before marriage. Other changes include cutting down after-death customs to 5 days and discouraging immersing of ashes in rivers and lakes to curb pollution.