Wedding celebrations in India, a country of diverse cultures, is convened with a lot of rituals but they often hid a dark underbelly. At times, rather than delightful moments of the occasion, memories are made over some incident which takes place after consuming intoxicants like alcohol.
To cope with this, a Station House Officer (SHO) of Devprayag police station, in Tehri District of Uttarakhand, has gone beyond his duty to take a step towards its prohibition. The officer is Mr Mahipal Singh Rawat. who took the initiative to reward Rs 10,001 to every bride who commemorates the wedding without any involvement of intoxicating substances like alcohol!
THE ISSUES
While speaking about the ill effects of alcohol consumption in events like weddings, Mr. Rawat told Indian Masterminds, “drinking alcohol in weddings and the different events attached to it like Mehndi, cocktail and reception, has increased violence in the area due to the difference created by an unconscious mind. Moreover, the cases of accidents have also increased due to this.”
“As this ill practice has been heavily publicized and is leading to domestic violence and disturbance in families, we have taken a step towards its prohibition by announcing a reward of Rs. 10,001 to every bride who celebrates the wedding without any intoxicating substances,” he added.
The initiative is spearheaded by Mr. Rawat and the whole staff of the police station will be contributing their bit to reward the bride.
INITIATING THE IDEA
In the past, Uttarakhand has been a witness to instances where serving liquor during weddings became a backbreaking financial burden on the bride’s family. Here, and in several other villages of the hill state, the tradition was that a wedding, the bride’s father would foot the bill for supplying liquor to everyone in the village. As such, these things financially broke many families of the region.
This also happened recently in Ratir Kheti village in Bageshwar district. However, the village `panchayat’, in a remarkable show of prudence and sympathy for the victim families, passed a resolution of banning this practice.
The move was also welcomed by a senior official, Mr Manikant Mishra, SP Bageshwar, who appreciated the resolution by saying “A social evil can be stopped only with the cooperation of society.”
As such moves are taken for the betterment of society, Mr. Mahipal Rawat in Devprayag organized a meeting with all the `gram pradhans’ (village chief) of 101 villages in the area. He said, “During the meeting, we discussed about the various issues being faced in the area which is leading to an unhealthy environment. We also spoke about how this initiative of stopping the use of alcohol and other intoxicants during weddings will create awareness among people and lead to overall benefits to everyone.”
After consulting the locals, Mr. Rawat initiated the idea which not only aims towards prohibiting intoxicants and rising crime in the area, but will also raise women’s voice against this malpractice.
This unique endeavor by the police is getting wide publicity in the entire region, through rash of messages/posts through various WhatsApp groups and other social media handles. As per Mr Rawat, the response from the public has been tremendous and everybody was pitching for the move and was whole-heartedly supporting the police.
