Stressing at making the big fat Punjabi weddings a little leaner, the Punjabi cultural council has stressed upon to adopt certain novel and cost-effective measures as social reforms.
The council, with a view to curtail capital expenditure rolled lavishly on marriages or other related ceremonies, has asked the Punjabis to send messages or e-cards through social media instead of costly cards to invitees.
The socio-economic community centric measures were endorsed and embraced during a meeting of the council on Sunday in which its president Harjeet Singh Grewal, chairman Jaswant Singh Chhapa, general secretary Harman Singh Butahari, secretary RK Raju and joint secretary Baljit Singh Saini were present.
The council passed a resolution requesting that parents, especially bride’s family, should send invitation cards designed for marriages or betrothal ceremonies through prevalent social media applications only and recipient or invitee should reciprocate confirmation through simple message or phone call.
In order to rein in spending on superfluous customs, the council also underlined the need to shun delivery of sweet-boxes along with invitation cards to invitees before marriages or related ceremonies and suggested that this ritual could be curbed by uploading e-cards through social media apps.
Besides, demand and acceptance of dowry must be stopped during all ceremonial occasions. To put check on wastage of cooked food, the council has also advised to restrict quantity of varied food items from Punjabi, Rajasthani, South Indian, Chinese cuisines and other sweet dishes as partakers often resort to throw away excess food in plates into bins.
The council has asked the educational institutes, village panchayats, urban local bodies and mahila mandals to educate the public in embracing these cost saving practices to curtail exorbitant spending on celebrations and save the economics of Punjabis.