Published on: August 29, 2013

Everyone who is likely to read this would be aware of what palliative care is – the treatment of pain, breathlessness and other symptoms, the nursing care, the emotional, social and spiritual support and so on, going on to bereavement support. You can see a nurse, doctor, social worker or volunteer helping with any of these, but marriages?

Arranged marriages are still the order of the day in India. A girl’s marriage is the responsibility of the parent. Ask any terminally ill parent of an unmarried daughter, “What bothers you most?”, and they are unlikely to ask “Why me?”; instead they are likely to ask, “How will my daughter ever get married?”. Arranging marriages requires negotiations between families and it requires money.

Alpha Charitable Trust, a major provider of palliative care in Kerala has taken up this issue as part of their palliative care delivery.  The extended family will do the negotiations and find the bridegroom.  Alpha will find sponsors, get a certain amount of gold (mandatory for all weddings!) and some money for expenses, and also arrange the ceremony at no cost to the family. This year they got together six couples during a colorful wedding ceremony on 25 August 2013.

Congratulations Noordeen (founder) and team.  Pallium India is proud to be associated with you. Let us all join together to wish those six couples all the best for their life together.