A total of 21 masked couples, differently-abled and underprivileged, shall tie the knot in Udaipur to spread awareness on Covid appropriate behaviour and shall also endorse the social awareness campaign ‘Say No to Dowry’, Prashant Agarwal, President, Narayan Seva Sansthan told IANS.

Agarwal said: “A total of 21 differently-abled and underprivileged couples will be masked while tying the knot at a mass wedding ceremony in Rajasthan’s Udaipur city and shall follow all norms of social distancing while simultaneously endorsing the 19-year-old flagship campaign ‘Say No to Dowry’.

“NSS will be conducting the 36th Mass wedding in September as our team is fully prepared to follow all safety measures during the ongoing pandemic. Our strategy is to follow social distancing norms to avoid any hazards. The upcoming mass marriage ceremony has been planned with a social awareness campaign ‘Say No to Dowry’. Couples and well-wishers shall keep their distance from each other by wearing masks during the wedding,” he added.

In 2020, a total of 47 differently-abled, underprivileged couples tied nuptial knots at a mass wedding ceremony here.

Till the 35th mass wedding ceremony, 2098 couples, who are physically disabled have tied the knot here.

NSS in the last few months has been quite busy helping out the poor and helping the needy during the pandemic.

Recently, it distributed free ration kits to 109 blind needy families in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Also, it has been conducting various campaigns during Covid-19 such as distribution and delivery of free corona medicine kits, food distribution and free of cost ration kits across India. So far, 3050 NSS corona medicine kits, 217958 food distribution and 31313 ration kits have been given away to the families in need.

In the new announcement, the NGO will also distribute ration kits in Jaipur, Amroha, Udaipur, Mathura, Bhubaneswar and Kaithal to the needy to fight the Covid wave. In these camps, under the ‘Mask is necessary’ campaign, instructions are also being given to strictly follow the rules of social distancing and wearing of masks.

“We are planning to prepare for the third Covid wave and its challenges by creating awareness campaigns and providing masks and sanitisation kits through our campaigns,” said Agarwal.