A Diet for the Big Fat Indian Wedding?

Extravagant Indian weddings are an annual source of income for many in India. India often turns wistfully to largely symbolic “austerity” measures when things look tough. In 2009, as the effects of a drought and a global economic downturn were felt, the Congress Party launched a drive to cut public spending. As a result, MP Shashi Tharoor got flak for staying in a luxury hotel, even though he told reporters he was paying for it himself.

Now, with food inflation in the double digits, the Mail Today tabloid reported on Tuesday that the new food minister, K.V. Thomas, has suggested curbing “extravagant functions,” such as weddings. Earlier, according to another report, a Congress Party lawmaker also called for such a measure. The story was soon picked up with glee by international newspapers.

A person in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution on Tuesday denied that the minister had said that 15 percent of grains and vegetables were wasted in this way, as reported by Mail Today. But the person did say that the minister had asked for a look at the files regarding a decades-old order limiting the number of guests at events.

It seems highly doubtful that curtailing the extravagance of an Indian wedding would do much to improve food wastage. A lot more food gets wasted in storehouses or in transit to market, where it often rots. And what about all the bands, flower growers, caterers, tent-wallas, power-generator providers and sundry others who depend on the wedding economy? Seems like a version of robbing Pritam to pay Pallav. On the other hand, such an order could have a positive social effect, by reducing the burden on parents with daughters, who are usually the ones who have to pay for most wedding expenses.

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