No more big fat weddings? Punjab MP’s Bill in Lok Sabha seeks cap on guests, dishes

The private member’s bill, introduced by Congress MP Jasbir Singh Gill in January 2020, was on Friday taken up for discussion in the Lok Sabha.

The MP from Khadoor Sahib in Punjab said the Bill seeks to end the culture of extravagant weddings that puts a lot of financial burden especially on the bride’s family. “I came across stories of how people had to sell their plots, properties and opt for bank loans to solemnize marriages in a lavish manner. The cut in wasteful expenditure on marriages could go a long way in checking female foeticide, as a girl child then would not be seen as a burden,” said Gill, explaining the rationale behind the Bill.

Gill said that he envisaged the Bill after attending a wedding in Phagwara in 2019. “There were dishes in as many as 285 trays. I noticed that no one had taken out even a spoonful from many as 129 such trays. It all went to waste,” said Gill.

The Bill seeks that the guests invited to a wedding from both bride and groom’s families should not exceed 100; number of dishes served should not exceed 10; and the worth of gifts should not exceed Rs 2,500. It also seeks that instead of extravagant gifts, donations should be made for the poor, needy, orphans or weaker sections of the society or to the NGOs.

“I implemented this in my family first. There were 30 to 40 guests when I married off my son and daughter this year,” said Gill.

This is not the first time that an attempt has been made to bring the “big fat Indian wedding” under the ambit of the law and cap the expenditure incurred on them.

Earlier, BJP’s Gopal Chinayya Shetty, the Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai North, had in December 2017 introduced a private member bill seeking “prevention and prohibition on the extravagant expenses incurred on marriages”. His Bill sought to provide for the “prevention and prohibition of sheer extravagance and unlimited expenditure being incurred on marriages and related ceremonies in various parts of the country and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”.

Prior to that, in February 2017, Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan had intriduced The Marriages (Compulsory Registration and Prevention of Wasteful Expenditure) Bill, 2016 to put a limit on the number of guests to be invited and dishes to be served in weddings. It also wanted those spending above Rs 5 lakh on a wedding, to contribute 10 per cent of the amount on marriages of girls from poor families”.

The chances of private member’s bill being passed in the Parliament is very low. According to data shared by the PRS Legislative Research, a think tank, only 14 such bills have been passed by both Houses of Parliament since 1952.

The Prevention of Wasteful Expenditure on Special Occasions Bill 2020

“These days, it has become fashionable to spend like feudals on special occasions such as marriages and festivals. The guest list is very long and the food menu layout is vast which leads to lot of wastage. Not only this, a lot of wastage occurs at the time of distribution of marriage cards or post-wedding gifts. Similarly, a lot of wastage occurs on festivals due to practices of exchanging gifts. That also deserves significant attention,” read the statement of objects and reasons of the Bill, introduced by Gill.

“On weddings, practice of a vast food layout, decoration, bands, music and number of guests invited has become a status symbol and a symbol of show-off. Analogously, on festivals thoughtless exchange of gifts is very wasteful. Festivals must be a time to remember the almighty and do good to society. But often, the core concept of festivals get lost in the show-off that many do, by exchanging fancy gifts. That money could instead be donated and smaller gifts distributed,” it adds.

On food wastage, it read, “In fact, on special occasions, food waste and loss has been rapidly increasing in India. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), every year around 1.7 billion tonnes, or almost one third of food produced for human consumption, is lost or wasted globally.”

Referring to Global Hunger Index 2019, it states that India is ranked 102 in 117 countries. “The NFHS4 (2015 &16) estimated 46.8 million under-five children in India are stunted and this represents one-third of total stunted children across the globe. Food loss or waste also amount to a major squandering of resources, including water, land, energy, labour and capital and it also needlessly produce greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to global warming and climate change. It is high time for our country to stand up against this unmeaningful and wasteful expenditure. So we should decide that not more than one hundred guests and not more than ten dishes should be allowed. Hence this Bill,” it adds.