Band, Baja, No Baaraat, No Dulha: Mass Wedding Ceremony In UP's Ballia Under Scanner

Uttar Pradesh's Ballia made headlines earlier this week when videos of a mass wedding showing brides garlanding themselves with no grooms in sight surfaced on social media. The mass wedding, involving about 568 couples, was conducted under the Chief Minister Mass Marriage Scheme at Maniyar Inter College on January 25.

The event, which had far more brides than grooms, has come under scrutiny with an FIR being registered against assistant development officers of the Social Welfare department and eight beneficiaries on charges of fraud at the Maniyar police station on Tuesday. The action was taken following the complaint of the District Social Welfare Officer Deepak Srivastava, according to PTI.

It was found that the mass wedding was rigged with locals paid to pose as couples getting married in return for a sum of money.

Ballia District Magistrate (DM) Ravindra Kumar said strict action would be taken against all those involved, whether “officers, employees or anyone else”.

“Two assistant development officers — Sunil Kumar Yadav and Bhanu Pratap of the Social Welfare department — have been arrested along Ravindra Gupta, Alok Srivastav, Upendra Yadav, Deepak Chauhan, Mukesh Kumar Gupta, Ramji Chauhan, Santosh Yadav, Arjun Verma, Ramnath, Acchelal Verma, Dharmendra Yadav, Gulab Yadav and Sarabjeet Singh of the Social Welfare department,” he said.

“Such action will be taken against those involved in corruption in the Mass Marriage Scheme that it will become an example for Ballia district,” he added.

The Chief Minister Mass Marriage Scheme, also known as Mukhyamantri Samuhik Vivah Yojana, is a social welfare program implemented in the state. It provides beneficiaries with Rs 51,000, distributed as follows: Rs 35,000 directly to the bride, Rs 10,000 for purchasing wedding materials, and Rs 6,000 for organising the wedding ceremony

Although the program has been beneficial for many, speculations around the weddings being rigged and allegations of corruptions have always been there, a local activist said.

Azhar Ali, a social activist working for women’s and children’s causes in Ballia, said this was not the first time something like this had happened.

“I was actually suspicious in the previous mass wedding as well. I had written to the authorities with my concerns about child marriages happening and asked them to do strict age verification,” Ali said.

Ali added, “I asked them to keep a watch on the date of birth of the people getting married because in a group as big as this, it can sometimes be overlooked.”

Speaking of the January 25 event, Ali said individuals who were already married were also participating in the ceremony because, according to sources, they had been promised about Rs 2,000.

“That’s not all, there were some Muslim couples too and they were seen taking pheras,” Ali said.

The local activist said another wedding had taken place just a few days ago and he had his suspicions about that one as well. 

Ali added, “Another wedding has also happened two to three days ago in which about 150 women were married. I have my suspicions. Now, let’s see if anything comes of that.”

According to a press release shared by the Ballia information office: ”Minister of State for Social Welfare (Independent Charge) Shri Aseem Arun has taken the matter of giving benefits to ineligible people in the Chief Minister's mass marriage program held on January 25 in Ballia seriously and ordered an inquiry.”

According to the official release, accused Assistant Development Officer (Social Welfare) Mr. Sunil Kumar Yadav got beneficiaries Archana, Ranjana and Suman included from Gram Panchayat Manikpur and Priyanka, Sonam, Pooja, Sanju and Ramita from Gram Panchayat Sultanpur involved in the mass marriage program.

“During investigation, it was revealed that Sanju was married 3 years ago while Pooja was married a year ago. Apart from this, Archana, Ranjana, Suman, Ramita and Priyanka got married in the year 2023,” the release said,

Ballia Express reporter Madhusudan Singh said the scene at the mass wedding on January 25 was bizarre.

“One of our reporters was sent there and when we asked him what he saw, he said the place was filled with brides and there were hardly any groom,” Singh said. “He filmed a video in which we saw women garlanding themselves.”

The local reporter said the entire event seemed staged. “People who were already married had been asked to sit in and there was a case of a woman marrying her brother-in-law. On speaking to some couples, it was found that they were told they’d be paid if they participated,” said the reporter.

Singh said that complaints of corrupt practices with regard to the mass marriage scheme had also been raised in the nearby town of Nagra a few months ago.

“About 50 couples were not given the matrimonial items that they are supposed to get so they started to protest and demanded the things to be given to them. So after that, two days later, they received the items,” Singh said. “Usually people when they tally the list of things they should be getting to what they actually get, they find things missing but then they say it's okay, who’s going to fight for a few items.”

Former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav criticised the BJP government for the corrupt practices. “A strange rigging of BJP corruption has come to light under the 'Chief Minister Mass Marriage Scheme' in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, where the youth were made false grooms by luring them with money,” he said in a post on X.

“This is a betrayal of the girls of the state and also playing with their emotions. This should be investigated seriously because the entire life of young women can be at stake due to such fraud. Every scheme of BJP is made only for corruption.”