Almora: Chitai Golu Devta temple

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Wedding ceremonies

ID proof to check underage marriages

Arpita Chakrabarty ,At this temple, Aadhaar must for marriage, Oct 10 2016 : The Times of India

In order to check the problem of rising cases of underage marriages, priests at the Chitai Golu devta temple near Almora have decided to insist on seeing a couple's Aadhaar card before conducting the wedding.

The temple sees about 400 marriages being solemnised in a year with about half-a-dozen taking place every day during the wedding season. Elaborating on the reasons for their decision, Hari Vinod Pant, the priest and treasurer of the temple committee said, “Since we organise a large number of marriages at the temple, it is very difficult sometimes to verify the names and addresses of the couple. Many couples come from outside the state to get married here and it is not possible to verify whether the couples have met the minimum age requirements for marriage.

“There have been instances when couples who came to the temple were found to be underage and it turned out they had eloped to get married. There have also been cases of Nepalese underage girls coming here to get married.“

According to local belief, having a marriage solemnised at the temple is considered auspicious as it is believed that the newly-weds would be blessed by Golu devta, considered to be the god of justice in Kumaon. Interestingly , temple officials said they would insist on checking only the Aadhaar cards and not any other proof of identity like voter ID card or PAN card.