PAKUR – A tribe in Pakur district in Jharkhand of India conducted a taboo event ‘Kissing in Public’ to celebrate love and romance between married couples in a bid to overcome the divorce rate.
As part of the event, over 18-odd tribal couples locked lips in the presence of thousands of people in Dumaria village, around 321 km from state capital Ranchi, in a never-seen-before competition.
Simon Marandi, a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) legislator who organised the competition, said it was an initiative to check growing cases of divorce and differences between couples in the tribal community here.
“Tribals are basically innocent and less educated, due to which, the family system is weakening. To make them aware of our social structure and responsibility towards the family, the idea of a kissing competition was conceived,” said Marandi, who retained the Littipara assembly seat in April 2017 byelection.
He said such a competition would help strengthen the relationship between the husband and wife in the tribal community.
Marandi has been organising an annual fair, known as Dumaria Mela, in his native village for the last 37 years where couple of events, including tribal dance, archery and running competitions are organised to entertain villagers.
The two-day fair started on Friday and concluded on Saturday evening. The kissing competition was added for the first time to the list of events.
“Earlier, the village competition was organised in a smaller space but this year it was held in a football ground where thousands of people from other villagers also took part,” Marandi said.
