Opinion | The Big Fat Indian Wedding Has Become Too Big For Comfort

At $130 billion (Rs 10.7 lakh crore), the Indian wedding industry is second only to the food and grocery market in the country. A recent report by Jefferies, an investment firm, shows that the Indian wedding market is twice the size of that of the US ($70) billion, and only a tad less than China's ($170 billion). 
An average Indian spends about $15,000, or Rs 12 lakh, per wedding. For perspective, that's three times the annual household income of Rs 4 lakh for an average Indian family, and around five times the per capita GDP of $2,900.

And yet, none of these statistics is as ironic as this: Indians on average spend almost twice as much on weddings than on education. According to Jeffries, the usual 18 years of education in India come up to only around Rs 6 lakh.

The Elite Wedding Syndrome

Weddings are an important part of Indian culture. Parents start saving up for it soon after children are born, and, if it's a girl child, they save more aggressively. 

Narayanan Ramaswamy, Partner & Head, Education and Skill Development Practice, KPMG in India, says about the Jefferies report: "Aggregate numbers and averages could be misleading. Indian weddings are much more than a mere marriage of two individuals. It's a social event. Hence can't be compared, as a category, with western wedding expenses - which is usually very symbolic." However, he adds, "A few uber-opulent weddings could skew the overall wedding expenses at the national level."

"Earlier, wedding celebrations were not this glamourous as they are now, though dowry was openly prevalent in the society," says Dr Channamma Kambara, Assistant Professor, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru. Clothes, jewellery, furniture, expensive gifts, multiple grand events spread across days, elaborate food menus, and mammoth guest lists, all of this and much more add to the cost of weddings in India. Luxury weddings, which cost around Rs 20-30 lakh, involve even more expenditures. Understandably, due to its sheer size and scale, the Indian marriage market is an important growth driver for various formal and informal sectors, including apparel, jewellery, catering, travel, decoration, and so on. Notably, wedding jewellery accounts for 25% of the total expenditure in a wedding, followed by catering at 20%, and events at 15%. As for those who prefer and can afford 'destination' weddings, these general trends have no limit or meaning/

"Apart from Bollywood, the growing appeal of 'elite' and glamorous weddings has become a cause of great stress for parents. Many - especially brides' families - end up spending way beyond their means, leading to high indebtedness," says Dr Kambara. 

Marriage Over Education

Despite the country's rapid economic growth and increasing prosperity, education still remains a blind spot. Students still lack access to quality education, most curricula are outdated, and funding is less than adequate. India spends just about 3-3.5% of its GDP on education. The US on the other hand spends 5%, while Canada, Japan and Germany respectively set aside around 5.5%, 3.6% and 4.8% of their GDPs for education. It also needs to be noted that these developed nations have much higher GDPs and much smaller populations than India's, for which experts recommend an education budget of around 6% of the GDP.

Girls suffer the most in this sorry state of affairs. Gender prejudices and orthodox ideas continue to be the biggest deterrents to their education, in addition to poverty and inadequate educational opportunities. In many cases, even when some parents have been willing to educate daughters, it's with the intention of getting them married off to a well-paid man. Thus, for women ultimately, marriage remains the all-governing consideration.

"Education is something one expects the government to take care of, whereas weddings are an individual expense. So naturally, when it comes to personal expenses, weddings would be higher," says Mr. Ramaswamy. All in all, it's great news that the wedding market is one of the key drivers of India's economy, but there has to be equal or more investment in education, both by the government and the people.

(Bharti Mishra Nath is Contributing Editor, NDTV)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author