Wedding bells for IDP couples

A program to register the marriages of internally displaced couples who are living together in welfare villages of Vavuniya was launched by the Equal Access to Justice Project of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

During the program, held in the Zone 0 Kadirgamar Nagar welfare village, 27 couples who had cohabited without registering their marriage exchanged marriage vows and received marriage certificates.

The majority of them had been prevented from entering into wedlock formally owing to the LTTE’s ‘proscription’ of marriage in 2008, whereas a large number had failed to register their marriage due to the absence of relevant services during displacement.