A District Collector of Bharatpur (Rajasthan), in the year 2012, made it compulsory to print dates of birth on marriage-cards, making it mandatory for printing-presses to first getting attested birth-certificates to avoid sealing of printing-press. Such and other noble ideas should be rather made compulsory all over the country for an effective check on marriage-related social evils. An estimated outlay of marriage-expenditure mentioning number of guests should also be printed on marriage-cards. When citizens demand accountability and transparency from government, they should also themselves be made transparent in marriage-related expenses to effectively check large-scale involvement of unaccounted money in marriages. List of gifts and cash-envelopes received/distributed on the occasions should be submitted to appropriate public-authorities within some stipulated time-period after marriage-functions are over. All this will also check in aborting female foeticides which is at times is done in fear of heavy expenses on marriages of girls in our dowry-addicted society.
Madhu Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
