Mumbai: BharatMatrimony, India’s leading matrimony service, today announced: “Pehle Padhai Phir Shaadi” – a social initiative to empower girls to choose education over marriage.
Through this initiative select girl students from Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, who will complete 12th standard this year, will receive scholarships to help them pursue their dreams through college education.
Jaisalmer’s walls are decorated with beautiful paintings of wedding art. But, behind this, is a stark reality. The city is a part of Rajasthan which has low adult literacy rates among girls in the country.
The reason is simple – the girls are often made to choose marriage over education.
Through “Pehle Padhai Phir Shaadi”, an initiative to drive social change, BharatMatrimony is encouraging parents to empower their daughters with freedom to think, choose and take this life-changing decision between education and marriage. Not stopping there, BharatMatrimony is creating a special Shiksha art inspired by the wedding wall graffiti, which celebrates and announces this key choice.
Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder and CEO – Matrimony.com, says “As a brand in the forefront of empowering women, BharatMatrimony is constantly trying to break new ground and change the social perspective about women, relationships and marriage. We believe “Pehle Padhai Phir Shaadi” will drive social change by encouraging girls to choose education first. Let’s not forget that educating a girl is like educating the family.”
MS Dhoni, former Indian captain and brand ambassador for BharatMatrimony, says, “I’m very proud to be associated with BharatMatrimony’s #PehlePadhaiPhirShaadi initiative to transform the future of girls by empowering them to make the choice between education and marriage.”
BharatMatrimony’s “Pehle Padhai, Phir Shaadi” initiative was executed in collaboration with the Dentsu Group. Aalap Desai, National Creative Director, Isobar India, says, “When we saw the problem, the solution didn’t call for a cutting-edge tech to be employed. Rather, simply asking parents to hand the decision to their daughters and celebrate it no matter what, was what the campaign called for. For us, Dhoni was the perfect spokesman to appeal to these parents. And that’s exactly what we did.”
