Mass weddings dodge dowry

HOWRAH: It was an occasion to remember. The anti-dowry movement got a shot in the arm when 11 couples including Hindus, Muslims and Christians tied the knot at a ceremony organised by Udaytirtha, a Howrah-based social organisation, at the Annapurna Byayam Samity recently.
Clad in simple attire, the couples tied the knot before 2000 people. Most of them were in their twenties and belonged to poor families.For 32-year-old Sona Horo, a graduate from Birsha College, Ranchi, and a ration shopowner, the marriage meant a lot when he got married to a Christian girl Dashni Hembrom.
“I dislike casteism and dowry system. I don’t find anything wrong in marrying a Christian girl. Even my family members supported me,� claimed Horo.
“Earlier my father opposed my marriage simply because the girl was not a Brahmin. Finally, he relented for the sake of our happiness,� said Samar Rai, an assistant secretary at the Chamrail gram panchayat, who married Purnima Samant, 25.
“This is for the first time that our organisation in collaboration with the state social welfare department organised this programme to promote the anti-dowry movement,� said Chandan Mahish, secretary, Udaytirtha.
Formed in 1996, it has organised seminars, cultural programmes, blood donation camps, free medical camps and distributed clothes, wheelchairs and crutches to the handicapped and the needy.
“We sought the help of the social welfare department and ADM (judicial) to reach out to them. They obliged us by visiting several blocks to impart the message and enroll interested couples with the organisation,� added Mahish.
Howrah SP Rajesh Kumar said, “All the 19 police stations in the district now have Mahila Ashray cells — or groups of counsellors comprising doctors, teachers and government servants — to resolve women-specific issues such as domestic violence and dowry.�