VHP Kerala pushes inter-caste, horoscope-free weddings to counter Hindu birth decline
VHP's Kerala unit will promote inter-caste and horoscope-free marriages and allow upper garments in its temples, citing a declining Hindu birth rate.
The Kerala unit of the Vishva Hindu Parishad has decided to encourage marriages across caste lines and to discourage horoscope matching as a precondition for weddings, citing what it describes as a falling birth rate among Hindus in the state.
The decision was taken at the organisation's state meeting in Kochi on Monday. Its state general secretary, Advocate Anil Vilayil, said the birth rate among Hindus in Kerala is declining and linked the trend primarily to delayed marriages. Caste barriers and incompatible horoscopes, he said, were the two main reasons for such delays.
Vilayil said youths in very small Hindu communities struggle to find partners within their own groups. The organisation has therefore decided to promote marriages that cross caste lines, including matches between upper-caste and lower-caste Hindus. He noted that horoscope matching, or jathaka porutham, remains widely practised among Hindus in the state and said it had shattered the marriage prospects of many young people. No wedding, he added, should be postponed on account of either factor.
According to state government data, 344,766 births were registered in Kerala in 2024. Of these, 135,753 were to Hindu mothers, or 39 per cent of the total. Hindus make up 54 per cent of the state's population, according to the 2021 Census.
The VHP said it will soon launch an online platform to help young people find partners from different Hindu castes and to facilitate weddings that do not depend on horoscope compatibility.
The state meeting also took up the question of dress rules at temples. Vilayil said restrictions on men wearing upper garments appear to have kept younger people away from temples, and that reforms are needed to draw them back. A gathering of Hindu clerics in Thrissur in 2023 had recommended a change to this effect, he said. Men will now be allowed to enter the roughly 200 temples under the organisation's management while wearing upper garments.