Fatherless brides wed on tycoon’s generosity
Print Edition
AN Indian diamond trader has thrown a mass wedding for more than 200 fatherless brides and given each of them gifts worth thousands of dollars, to help poor women start a new life.
Mahesh Savani performed the Hindu wedding ritual of “Kanyadaan” — the practice of giving away one’s daughter in marriage — for 236 fatherless brides from poor families at a mega-wedding event in the western state of Gujarat on Christmas Day.
Savani, who believes that giving away brides is a blessing from God, has been organizing similar mass weddings every year since 2012. “With Sunday’s mass wedding, I have become (a) proud father to have performed ‘kanyadaan’ of over 700 girls,” he said.
Hundreds of brides in colorful ethnic attire and ornate jewelry performed their wedding rituals in front of thousands of guests in the city of Surat, a hub for the diamond polishing industry.
The tycoon also gave gifts of gold and household items, including sofas and beds, worth 500,000 rupees (US$7,400) to each of the brides to help them start their married life.
Savani said he began his charitable campaign in 2008 when one of his own employees died just days before his daughter’s wedding.
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