Maharashtra: ‘No COVID-19 case here, why should we call off weddings’

In Nashik, Sachin Gohire (21) is scheduled to get married on Sunday in Deogaon village. The preparations began months ago, a community hall is booked and paid for. On Saturday was his haldi ceremony. “I have not cancelled my wedding. I hope nobody comes to stop it,” he says, adding, “There is so much stress around this virus even though there is not even a single case here.”

In Nandurbar, even a low-key wedding has 1,000 guests. Earlier this week, collector Rajendra Bharud held local meetings to urge people to not invite beyond 50 guests. “Yesterday I formed two teams, a marriage counselling team and an inspection team, to control the crowd gathering for wedding celebrations and file an FIR against parents of bride and groom if the crowd exceeds,” he said. The marriage counselling team tries to convince families to avoid large-scale celebrations, and the second team goes about sealing wedding venues, liquor shops and hotels where functions are held.

“But there is no case of coronavirus here. So why should people cancel weddings?” Tatya, who lives in Shahada taluka, asks. Some educated and in sync with news, he says, keep hand sanitisers at wedding venues and have reduced the guest list. But there is no rush to buy masks here. No cancellations of weddings. “Instead of 4,000, now 2,000 people attend a wedding,” Tatya says.

Deeper into the hills of Nandurbar, villager Arun Kuwar says if there is a wedding in village, it is an open invitation for all villagers to attend. “Even those without an invite come and dance to celebrate. People here are not scared about any infection,” farmer Kuwar (51) said. Kuwar has himself attended seven weddings since Holi. “It is a social obligation to attend weddings but people don’t understand the risk,” says another villager Munesh Jagdev (34), a farmer, who is watching daily news of COVID-19 on his television set. His family of 13 has remained at home since eight days now, except the essential outings to buy grocery. “Very few people in Nandurbar are serious. We need total shutdown here,” he says.

There have been instances of panic though. Last week, a person came from Oman to attend a wedding in Navapur taluka in Nandurbar. “Somebody informed police and they took him away. He was not following home quarantine rules,” said social worker Pratibha Shinde. The wedding continued after he left, although Shinde smirks, several started washing their hands.

Across Maharashtra, 281 passengers who returned after foreign travel remain under surveillance. In Nandurbar, the collector said, 15 such people are under home quarantine, “but with difficulty as they required a lot of counselling”.

In Palghar, a group wedding of 21 couples scheduled on March 25 has been postponed till April. “Village sarpanchs are telling people if they get the virus, they will infect their family and the whole village. This has scared people,” said M Kotwal, a Palghar resident. He said 12 weddings in Vikramgad taluka this week were postponed till April.

In Wardha, deputy collector Manoj Kumar said four COVID-19 cases in Nagpur have created some stir in Wardha, 80 kms away, where traffic on road has thinned, wedding plans are being called-off and restaurants have shut doors. In Trimbakeshwar, Bhagwan Madhe worries over the series of weddings in nearby villages and the cars arriving with guests. “I am thinking of complaining to the police to do something,” he says.