Darshana Gupta was an Indian known for organising mass weddings. She was the secretary of the Banarsi Das Gupta Foundation. In 2019 she was awarded the

Nari Shakti Puraskar The Nari Shakti Puraskar is an annual award given by the Ministry of Women and Child Development of the Government of India to individual women or to institutions that work towards the cause of women empowerment. It is the highest civilian hon ...

by the President of India on International Women's Day having arranged the weddings of 3,500 couples who might otherwise have remained single because they could not afford a traditional grand wedding and dowry. In 2023, she died at her residence in faridabad.

Life

She married Ajay Gupta who was the son of

Banarsi Das Gupta Banarsi Das Gupta (5 November 1917 – 29 August 2007) was an Indian politician who served as the 4th Chief Minister of Haryana state in India. Life Gupta was born in Bhiwani and he studied at Pilani in Rajasthan. Gupta was a renowned ...

. Banarsi Das Gupta died in 2007 aged 90. That year it was announced that the Banarsi Das Gupta Foundation was to be created. It was founded by Gupta and her husband. The foundation is an NGO registered in

Faridabad Faridabad is the most populous city in the Indian state of Haryana and a part of Delhi National Capital Region. It is one of the major satellite cities around Delhi and is located 284 kilometres south of the state capital Chandigarh. The ri ...

with Ajay Gupta as the chair, and Darshana Gupta as the secretary. Darshana_Gupta_and_Nari_Shakti_Puraskar_and_the_President

The foundation has been addressing the problem of marriage which traditionally in India has been a grand affair involving expensive arrangements and the exchange of a dowry. These traditions result in many people not getting married despite a wish to have a partner. The foundation has arranged hundreds of weddings. The initial batch of 250 in

Panchkula Panchkula (PKL) is a planned city and district headquarter in the Panchkula district, part of the Ambala division in Haryana, India. The origin of the name Panchkula came from the place where five irrigation canals meet. Panchkula establis ...

was so successful that the regional government decided to give each couple a grant of $R11,000. Gupta is also an executive member of the All India Vaish Federation. In 2019 her work was recognised when she awarded the

. The award was made on International Women's Day by the President of India. The citation noted that she had arranged over 3,500 weddings for the underprivileged without regard to race, religion or colour. The money saved by not having a fancy wedding means that money can be redirected towards the education or training of the women who might have become "social victims" of they had remained single.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gupta, Darshana Nari Shakti Puraskar winners 20th-century births Living people Year of birth unknown People from Faridabad Year of birth missing (living people) People from Haryana