One-year-old Priyanka cuddles in the arms of her mother who is decked up in the bridal attire. Her father, the groom, is sitting on a plastic chair placed in the opposite row. Priyanka’s parents Ramji and Sanji Mohankar, tribals from Dahanu, are all set to marry. The couple never had money to get married, so they arrived at the mass wedding ceremony at Dahanu on Friday to solemnise their relationship. The ceremony was jointly organised by Shramajivi Sanghatna, Bhaiyuji Maharaj and the Tribal Development department of the state government. The response to the mass wedding event was quite overwhelming as 470 couples turned up to tie the knot.

“Wedding ceremony is a luxury that not everybody can afford among the tribal community. With sanction of the family and relatives, the couple starts to live together as husband and wife waiting to save money to get married. In the past, tribal couple had the marriage before their eldest son got married,” said Vivek Pandit of Shramajivi Sanghatna.

It is sheer poverty that prevents the tribal couples from having a proper wedding ceremony. A simple tribal wedding would cost about Rs 8,000 while a lavish one with music band and decorative pandals would incur expenses of Rs 30,000. Spending thousands of rupees for a marriage is something that these tribals, working in meager jobs like as labourers, can not afford. They can only borrow that amount from money-lenders and repay for the rest of their lives.

So for labourers like Dhanu Dalvi, who is wedding his wife Gulab in the presence of their two-year-old son Suraj, this mass marriage is an opportunity they would not miss. Besides the feast for the friends and relatives, the mass marriage comes with the benefit of free bridal and groom make-up, garlands, mangalsutra, music band, one wedding photograph and a marriage certificate.

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