Over a dozen would-be brides in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district, about 325 kilometres from here, have requested their parents not to purchase jewellery for them and instead buy them FDs.

“Fixed deposits could be more useful than the jewellery.....they will come handy in times of need while the jewellery could be put on only on important occasions”, says Rachana Pandey, who will be getting married on May 21 next. Twenty one-year-old Rachana feels that at a time when artificial jewelleries are available in abundance there is no need for going for the real ones.

“They  not only cost more, one also has to take measures for their safety; besides they will not be useful if one needs cash quickly,” she explains.

Anupama, whose marriage will be solemnised on May 11 next, says that the FDs “provide a sense of economic security, which is so essential for the people, who are going to start a new life”. Anupama has also requested her father for National Savings Certificate (NSC) of the amount he was planning to spend on buying jewellery for her. There are many other would-be brides besides Rachana and Anupama, who have made similar requests to their parents.

The parents of these would-be brides also concurred with them. “I think it’s a wise thing,” Anupama’s father Rajendra Kumar said, adding that he has already shelved the plan to purchase jewellery for her marriage.

Some parents, however, expressed reservations over the preference.

 “Jewellery is not merely a gift to the daughters, it also enhances social status of the women,”said Ravi Shankar Upadhyaya from Kushinagar.