Initiating a Matrimony Portal for Socially Aware Individuals !!!

Hi all,

We would like to put forward an idea for starting a "Matrimony Portal" for socially aware individuals, enabling an alternative route for potential seekers who don't want to rely on the traditional mode of arranged marriages but are limited by current avenues(e.g. newspaper classifieds and existing matrimonial portals on the lines of shaadi.com, jeevansathi.com, etc.)

While initially this may seem to be a bizarre idea to propagate, we feel that there is a vital need for having such a platform for individuals who want to break away from traditional norms and people who are looking for partners passionate about social change, whether as volunteers or full timers.

For more details, please go through the FAQs below:

Q) What is the need of setting up such a matchmaking portal when there are already existing avenues?

Ans: In India, a typical arranged marriage comes up with several strings attached based on the lines of caste (and sub-caste) and family status, plagued with evils like dowry(both in subtle and blatant forms) and rampant lavish weddings, predominantly conditioned towards having the guy's side an upper hand in the marriage proceedings (and even post-marriage) and trying furiously to churn out "picture perfect" couples in an effort to ensure that such marriages are "socially acceptable".

For individuals, who want to search partners on their own, the existing avenues provide lesser options of seeking a partner based on their value system, thought process, concern for society, being individually and social responsible, etc. Hence, there is a need for having an alternative avenue.

Q) Who will be the target audience for such a portal?

Ans: This portal would be mainly catering to

• Individuals who are seeking partners who are broadminded enough to look beyond the traditional norms of caste and dowry and have an independent mindset for taking stands on various issues concerning the society
  
• Volunteers who are regularly working for social causes and who want a helping hand of their partners in carrying forward their efforts
  
• Social workers/Full Timers/Activists (present or future) who are seeking socially conscious individuals as their life partners

Q) What will be the benefits of having such a portal?

Such a portal would serve manifold purposes, such as:

• The members of this portal will have to take a pledge for a NO DOWRY wedding
• We would try to encourage a simple wedding as far as possible, thus discouraging the abominable trend of the rampant commercialization of relationships backed by the materialistic and consumerist aspirations in current society
• We are hopeful that such an avenue will lead to more number of inter-caste marriages thus contributing towards addressing the issue of caste barriers in society
• For the individuals who want to volunteer for social causes, it calls for a different lifestyle, including lesser materialistic aspirations and devoting more time for social causes. This requires constantly juggling between work, family and social causes which can become quite challenging after marriage. Finding a like minded partner becomes imperative when one wants to continue the enthusiasm of volunteering work before marriage
• For the individuals who are involved full time in social work or want to move towards being a full timer in future, many of them would be keen to find a partner with similar goals who are passionate about working at grass-roots level and completing each other. Our portal will help them in finding such partners by bringing together people working as full timers/planning to work as full timers
  

Q) How are you planning to spread the word about this initiative?

To make this initiative sustainable and ensuring that it reaches a critical mass, this would need more publicity especially among the potential seekers. For this different mediums would be used including social networking websites, online and print media, word of mouth publicity, friends referrals, etc.

Q) How one can help if one wants to support this cause?

You can volunteer in several ways if you want to support this cause:

• Help in putting a website in place which would help the members to search and browse through the profiles of registered members
  
• You can help in dealing with handling the admin issues related to running such an initiative
  
• Help in spreading a word about this initiative through social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, etc. along with helping in word to mouth publicity among your friends and relatives.
  
• You can help us in connecting with media outlets, writing blogs/articles about this initiative and propagating the idea through any other publicity mediums

Q) One of my friends would be interested in being a member of such a portal, but what about the privacy concerns?

Ans: This is a valid concern and adequate measures will be taken to ensure that personal contact details will not be revealed unless with the consent of that member. We would be keeping enough checks and balances to ensure that only genuine profiles are part of the member and that there is no potential misuse of personal information.

Q) From when this portal will be functional?

Ans: While we are keen for this initiative to take-off at the earliest, this would be contingent upon the combined efforts of volunteers. The idea being in inception phase, it has to go through several rounds of brainstorming to ensure that various issues are taken care of relating to this portal.

If you see some merit in this initiative and would like to get associated with such an initiative and be part of it then please feel free to mail with your ideas and suggestions to Selva Ganapathy ( aid.selva@gmail.com ) or Nishank ( onlynishank@gmail.com).
Kindly let us know in case of any queries or concerns.

Thanks and regards,
Nishank/Selva
(9910137929/9790951652)