Maharashtra charity commissioner to fund 1,800 weddings for farmers’ children

₹41 lakh has been alloted for a mass wedding, wherein 80 couples will tie the knot, this weekend in Mumbai, said the charity commissioner.

The office of the Maharashtra Charity Commissioner has said that it will organise 1,800 weddings for farmers’ children by May 13. It has previously funded over 1,200 such weddings in 15 districts, as part of its mass wedding initiative.

The initiative calls for charitable religious institutions, educational trusts and social organisations to fund mass weddings for farmers’ children. (HT file photo)

₹41 lakh has been alloted for a mass wedding, wherein 80 couples will tie the knot, this weekend in Mumbai, said Shivkumar Dige, Charity Commissioner. On Saturday, the mass wedding programme received ₹17 lakh from actor Nana Patekar’s NGO, NAAM Foundation. This money will also be used to fund weddings across 17 districts in Marathwada and Vidarbha.

The initiative calls for charitable religious institutions, educational trusts and social organisations to fund the weddings, to ensure that financially distressed farmers do not have to borrow more. Dige said, “The maximum cases of farmer suicides are reported in these regions. By funding weddings in these areas, it will help reduce some of the farmers’ burden.”

Utilisation of surplus funds with such institutions come under provisions of the Maharashtra Public Trust Act, 1950. Funds collected from institutions with religious affiliations are being allocated for weddings irrespective of the families’ religions, said Dige.

“We have observed that in a lot of cases, farmers are in debt as they borrow money for their daughters’ weddings. When they are unable to repay the loan, they commit suicide. By supporting the Charity Commissioner’s initiative, we thought we would be able to reach out to farmers from remote areas of Maharashtra,” said a representative from the NGO NAAM.

HT has earlier reported that around 104 farmer suicides were reported in Vidarbha in January. Last year, 2,414 suicides were reported in the state from January to October. Of these, 907 cases were from Amravati in Vidarbha and 789 cases from Aurangabad in Marathwada.