Respected Janab  Iqbal Abdul Hameed ji and Panakkad Sayyid Munavvarali

Shihab Thangal ji

Brothers & sisters ,

First of all I congratulate Gold Hill Club for organising ‘’Gold Hill MAHAR
2015’’ charity mass wedding ceremony to help girls from under privileged
families from different religions and different backgrounds.

This is a great contribution by Gold Hill Club towards the society as the
organisation is helping the girls belonging to poor and destitute families
by finding out suitable grooms for them and organising their daughters’
marriage.

I am feeling fortunate to be a part of such an auspicious and noble
occasion.

Charity mass wedding ceremonies are need of the hour to help the poor
sections as marriage ceremony has become a costly affair now a days. Such
charity programmes will also help in eradicating the menace of dowry which
has been existing in our society for a long time.

Poor people are unable to bear the huge expenses on wedding of their
daughters and due to lack of money for dowry, the girls from weaker
sections some time do not get suitable grooms. Poverty even leads to female
foeticide in the country although Kerala ranks no. 1 in the country in
terms of favourable sex ratio.
Now a days wedding ceremonies have become an occasion for the rich people
to display their affluence by spending lakhs & crores of rupees but for a
poor man the occasion is related with his life and death.

charity mass wedding events can be very useful in fighting the menace of
dowry which leads to harassment and even death of brides in some cases.

There is a need to create an environment of awareness against the evil of
dowry and charity mass weddings are a step in this regard.

These charity mass weddings will be helpful in bridging the gap between the
rich and the poor, it will help in maintaining social peace and harmony.
These events can also be useful in ending discrimination in the society in
terms of religion, caste, colour or creed.

I am of the opinion that such charity events should be organised by NGOs
and other organisations working for welfare of the poor people. These
organisations should come forward to help girls from the economically
weaker sections of the society.

The governments as well as social organisations will have to work together
to eradicate the dowry system and also to help the girls from weaker
sections of the society.

There is also a need to empower girls from the poor sections. Our
government at the Centre has been working in this direction and has
launched ‘’Beti bachao, beti padhao’’ programme  in an effort to encourage
birth and education of girls and tackle the low child sex ratio.
BJP governments in different states are also working to empower girls and
women through various welfare schemes. The NDA Government under the
leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to safety and
security of girls and women. In the Union General Budget 2015-16 another Rs
1000 crores have been provided to the Nirbhaya Fund. Sukanya Samridhi
Scheme is an important welfare programme of the NDA government. This scheme is aimed at encouraging savings for a girl child’s education and her marriage.
All these steps of our government have evoked good response. But a lot has
to be done for the girls’ health, education and their empowerment. The
society has to come forward and help the governments in this direction.
World over such events of mass weddings are being organised, prominent
one being held in South Korea last year where 2500 couples took part
in a mass wedding ceremony.
I am very hopeful that today’s function will set an example in the society.
I once again congratulate Gold Hill Club for this event and give my sincere
blessings to the would be couples here at Kasaragod.

 

Thank you