‘Weddings with a difference’
In the eighties Maharashtra, then with a population of about eight crores was spending a whopping Rs 12 crores on wedding ceremonies every year. Enormous expenditures & increasing demands for dowry became a serious issue that plagued the country. The status of a person was being decided in the community on the basis of the amount of dowry given. Curbing wastage by cutting expenditure was the only answer.
The founder of BJS, MrShantilalMuttha was deeply moved by this social evil growing more & more menacing for a large section of the society with no solution at sight. The trend of exorbitant expenditure and display of wealth during wedding ceremonies prompted MrMutthato come up with the pioneering idea of mass marriage as a possible solution & to put in an all out effort to convert the idea into a deliverable action. The idea of mass marriage was easy to discuss but difficult to implement. A lot of hard work went into convincing people to accept the thought. Proper planning & effective communication helped in generating good response for the first mass marriage ceremony in Pune where MrShantilalMuttha also got his niece married, thus setting an example and thereby ushering a revolutionary change in existing system without hurting people’s sentiment. The first mass marriage held in 1986 with 25 couples was thus a great success.
The first such experiment that started with an idea of an event thus soon evolved into a mass movement fast spreading all over the country with couples across communities, castes & creeds, the rich & the poor, taking pride in being a part of the trend.
