Friday, August 29, 2008

Wedding Woes

No this is not the usual cribbing on how-wedding-spoils-a-person's-life. I am talking about the woes arising out of the great Indian wedding. I recently attended a wedding and it was as always a great experience, lots of colors, happiness, so many people and as many rituals. I just love Indian weddings.

But the question which troubled me was why the hell an Indian wedding is not complete. What I mean is, after you get married you still have to go to court / registrar and get your marriage registered and only after getting a certificate, you can prove you are married, especially to the officials where you need to prove it. Most troubles are faced by women, as they generally has to tussle with virtually all the govt offices to get their name changed. Then I thought to myself may be registration is important to have a proper record of and to be able to validate a marriage. Because in Indian weddings traditionally we invite the whole society as witness and may be then it is difficult to convert it into paper work.

Then another question shot up, If registration is indeed important and almost everyone is going to be married, then why not make it easy to register a marriage. This will be in best interest of everyone in the country. So, how to make it convenient to register a marriage. I believe the answer is change the approach. Instead of having offices where people will go and register their marriage, which creates chaos at offices and too much complications for everyone involved, just reach out to people in a way which doesn't require much hassle and efforts.

Simple and yet effective solution could be, give some basic training and legal authority to the priests on whom we put the whole faith for our successful marriages anyway. This will have many benefits.
1) Widespread & established network: As we have priests in possibly every corner of country they make a very strong network and increase our reach.

2) Convenience to everyone: All they have to do is carry a registration form to the wedding, and with all the rituals take out 10 minutes to fill up the form with all the details. There can be as many witnesses as one wants and the registration can become on the spot. So, least hassle for everyone.

3) Induce competition to make it viable: As soon as some of the priests will start this practice they will boast of providing legal registration of marriages and that will encourage others to follow suite or they will loose business.

And then I believe our great Indian wedding will become complete. I know many will not agree to my point of view but I believe changing times require change of approach and this looks like the best way to me.

3 comments:

Pappul 8/29/08, 4:19 PM  

Noble thought but I am not sure the execution will be smooth ... given the knack of our government to extract money from us ... just imagine how many professions stand to loose with this approach ... there are agents, lawyers, clerks galore (at the marriage registration office as well as the government office) ... if it happens, it will be great but I am sceptically sure that it will take time my friend ... and maybe you will also need to do the rounds when you get hitched ... but worth a point man ... noble indeed ... Cheers ... !!

Vikash Kumar 8/29/08, 4:30 PM  

That is exactly the point.. It's a thought which cites the need for change which never comes easily.. But If we can make enough people realize this. It may not be impossible also. Basically I just wanted my thoughts to be heard and get other point of views if possible. Looks like a good start :)

Prameela 9/8/08, 6:41 AM  

That's such a valid point. I think one of the few things that seriously need a make-over is the marriage registration process. And you seem to have the full process (the way it could be done) in place. Hope someone is listening!!

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