Valentine’s Day: Female students in India forced to take ‘pledge against love marriage’

The students of a girls’ college in India took a pledge against love marriage and dowry on Valentine's Day.

The college in Amravati in Maharashtra allegedly made students take a pledge against love marriage, on Valentine’s Day on Friday, ANI reported. Students of the Mahila Arts and Commerce College, Chandur Railway, took a pledge that they would “not love anyone and never have a love affair nor do a love marriage”.

“I take an oath that I have complete faith in my parents and I will not fall in love and not do love marriage,” the students pledged. The pledge also included an oath not to give dowry.

students from a girls college forced to take an absurd pledge in Amravati on Valentine's Day. The students are forced to pledge saying we will not love anyone and will never have a love marriage @Pankajamunde @news24tvchannel @VarshaEGaikwad @ChitraKWagh @meudaysamant pic.twitter.com/by8mV1wPgM

— Vinod Jagdale (@iamvinodjagdale) February 14, 2020

Maharashtra Women and Child Development Minister Yashomati Thakur said the students must have taken a non-binding pledge.

She added that the pledge may have been taken in the context of the incident at Wardha, where a stalker set a woman on fire, following which she died of burn injuries.

The tweet by Vinod Jagdale, bureau chief cum assistant editor of Mumbai-Maharashtra, also faced criticism when some of the twitter users asked him to highlight the pledge against dowry instead of the pledge against love.