The Cost of the Indian Wedding on the Poor
Indian marriages, which can have hundreds or thousands of guests, are known for their extravagance as families aim to impress their future in-laws and guests. In 2020, around 10 million weddings took place in a market worth $50bn [1]. In 2025, the wedding industry is worth $130 billion, the second largest industry in the country [2]. According to research in 2025, an average Indian family’s expenditure on a wedding is approximately triple its annual income and twice what is spent on the child’s education for 18 years. [3]
This lavish expenditure puts a burden upon lower income families in a country where many often go hungry. People may commit suicide because of the financial pressures and the inability to afford a marriage [4]. To raise the funds, the family may have to sell what land they own in agricultural areas as family wealth is suddenly and irretrievably lost. [5] Again, the occasion might give rise to debts incurred from unscrupulous money lenders at exploitative rates or which effectively result in slavery to pay off loans [6]. In addition, marriages can often be the occasion for exploitative practices such as the demand for dowries which increases financial pressures on the family. [7] The 2006 Rural Economic and Demographic Survey (REDS) states that dowry was paid in 95% of marriages during 1960-2008. [8] Not least, poorer families feel a pressure to emulate the weddings of the rich or those that they see in Bollywood films, which they cannot afford. [9]
The State’s Curbing of Marriage Expenditure
The Indian state has recognised these pressures and attempted to remedy them. The Marriages (Compulsory Registration and Prevention of Wasteful Expenditure) Bill was introduced in Parliament in 2017. The bill stipulated that families who spent more than 5 lakh rupees (about four thousand pounds) on a wedding had to donate 10 percent of the overall cost of the weddings to brides from poor families. [10]
To prevent dowries, the Dowry Prohibition Act has been in place since 1961. To give or to take a dowry in India is an offence with at least five years of imprisonment in the case of violations. There is also a fine of either about £150 or the value of the dowry given, whichever is higher. [11]
Civil Society’s Innovations as Solutions
Pragati Gramodyog evam Samaj Kalyan Sansthan (Progressive Village-Enterprises and Social-welfare Institute) is a voluntary non-profit organisation which has offered a solution to ease the financial pressure on Indian families for weddings and to prevent debt bondage for the poor. They organised group weddings of five people at a time which reduced the cost of the wedding ceremony from $750 per person to only $15 per person [12]. This civil society solution showed that innovative practices and a sense of practicality could alleviate the financial burdens on the poorest.
The Challenge Ahead: Education
Low levels of education combine with poverty to put pressures on Indian families to spend lavishly on weddings. [13] The right education would give an impetus for men and women to challenge illegal practices like dowry. [14] Education could also cause a shift in social perceptions and financial awareness so that Bollywood films and the conspicuous consumption of the rich did not influence individuals so much to their detriment.
The Future of Marriage
At the heart of the problem of lavish wedding expenditure is the perception of tradition. The dowry culture and the conspicuous consumption culture around Indian weddings. Indians want to keep their traditions alive, at any cost. This is what the law is up against. Civil society innovations like group weddings show that traditions can be reconciled with practicality if weddings are thought through and planned financially. Education can provide a path forward from exploitation, slavery and debt bondage. The future of marriage in India is a just and rational marriage if the right conditions are put into place.
- https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/1/31/the-financial-burden-of-weddings-on-indias-poorest-families
- https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/how-the-wedding-market-perpetuates-dowry-culture-101756570272136.html
- https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/how-the-wedding-market-perpetuates-dowry-culture-101756570272136.html
- https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/1/31/the-financial-burden-of-weddings-on-indias-poorest-families
- https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/1/31/the-financial-burden-of-weddings-on-indias-poorest-families
- https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/1/31/the-financial-burden-of-weddings-on-indias-poorest-families
- https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/1/31/the-financial-burden-of-weddings-on-indias-poorest-families
- https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/developmenttalk/how-dowry-influences-household-decisions-rural-india
- https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/1/31/the-financial-burden-of-weddings-on-indias-poorest-families
- https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/1/31/the-financial-burden-of-weddings-on-indias-poorest-families
- https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/1/31/the-financial-burden-of-weddings-on-indias-poorest-families
- https://studentreview.hks.harvard.edu/how-weddings-condemn-indias-poorest-to-bonded-labor/
- https://studentreview.hks.harvard.edu/how-weddings-condemn-indias-poorest-to-bonded-labor/
- https://studentreview.hks.harvard.edu/how-weddings-condemn-indias-poorest-to-bonded-labor/
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