Ahmedabad, July 17, 2019: The Thakor community in Gujarat has come up with a nine-point diktat to strictly enforce its traditions and customs.
Prominent among them are a ban on unmarried girls using mobile phone and prohibition on inter-caste marriages.
This was decided at a meeting held at Jegol in Banas Kantha district on July 14, where around 800 community elders from 12 villages attended.
If any girl is seen using a mobile phone then her father will be fined and the family will be held responsible.
And if any girl marries a boy from another community the father will have to pay a fine of 125,000 rupees and if the boy marries a girl from another community the fine is 200,000 rupees.
The villages represented were Dantewada taluka in Banaskantha district like Kotda, Gaguda, Odwa, Hariyawada, Marpuria, Shergarh, Talepura, Randol, Ratanpur, Danari and Velavas.
The elders and a congress legislator of that region have appreciated the rules. The motive behind banning mobile phones for unmarried girls is to prevent inter-caste marriages. Through the usage of mobile phones the girls fall in love with boys from other communities and eventually elope to get married.
Other rules include avoiding DJs and extravagant expenses at wedding ceremonies.
One political leader of the Thakor community from the Vav village is of the opinion that banning mobiles is for the good of the girls as phones tend to distract them from their studies. On the other hand the boys are free to use mobile phones and have no such restrictions.
This is not the first time such rules have been framed for girls alone. Some years back, some villages in Bihar and Haryana imposed similar rules.
Source: twocircles.net