AGRA: In a gesture of support to farmers reeling under a series of blows after unseasonal rains destroyed their crops, sadhus in Mathura-Vrindavan, along with their followers, have announced that they will arrange the weddings of the farmers' daughters in order to ease their financial burden.
Though the government doesn't have exact figures, there have been frequent reports in the recent past of farmers across UP either committing suicide or dying of heart attack after seeing their crops flattened by the untimely showers. The seers have now said that they will organize a mass wedding on April 21, Akshaya Tritiya, for the daughters of those farmers who have been left with no money to marry them off.
"I was very shocked to hear that a farmer in Vrindavan died recently as he could not marry his daughter after the losses he suffered in the recent rains," said Govind Vallabh Das, a saint from Vrindavan and one of the organisers of the event. "Even a girl committed suicide in Hathras as she couldn't see her father, already suffering from huge losses and burdened by a heavy loan, running from pillar to post to arrange funds for her wedding scheduled for May."
According to Pooran Kaushik, district president of Sarva Brahman Mahasabha, an organization involved in the initiative, the weddings of almost 108 girls are expected to be performed at the ceremony. "Funds for the event are being provided by devotees as well as NGOs like Govindram Goyal Charitable Trust of Kolkata, and Shree Ramnandacharya Vaishnav Seva Trust of Vrinadavan. Registrations would start from March 27, and will continue till April 15. The weddings would be held at Vrindavan."
The mass wedding would be a 'sarva-jatiya' (all caste) event. The organizers say that they have no role in the selection of grooms which would be the prerogative of the bride and her family. "Our objective is mainly to act as facilitators," said Das.
Interestingly, the organizers add that their responsibility towards the girls will not end with the wedding ceremony. "We will give our names as the guardians of the bride and fulfill the responsibilities that a father carries out even after the girl is married, and settled at her home," said a representative of one of the NGOs involved in the mass wedding.
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