No more Wasteful Weddings and Marriage Break-ups 

Indore

 Janak Palta McGilligan Calls for " Sustainable Marriage " on her 36 th Marriage Anniversary Workshop

Dr (Mrs) Janak Palta McGilligan the Director of the Jimmy McGilligan Centre For Sustainable Development celebrated her 36th marriage anniversary by conducting one day training workshop on “Sustainable Choices For Sustainable Marriage’, on Nov 27, 2024 at the Centre itself in Sanawadiya. 

The programme started with Shankhnaad by Govind Maheshwari , Baha’i Prayers Janak Palta McGilligan ,Dr Laita Sharma ,and Soulful Bhajans by Gautam Kale's Sangeet Gurukul group .

Janak McGilligan welcomed all the participants and started 

" purpose of this workshop is to strengthen the Family life, because family is the first unit of Society and its foundation is based on the Institution of marriage. This is why it is of vital importance to have Sustainable marriage and Sustain married life harmoniously. We need to organize eco -friendly Zero- waste ,healthy and happy wedding Ceremonies and enjoying Sustaining Married life. If marriage is planned, organized, managed and lived in a sustainable way, this will directly contribute to Sustainable Community development starting from grassroots . This will help India Restoring , preserving and sustaining Indian culture harmonious with Nature and solution to Climate- Change Challenges."  

Sharing her own learning and experience of life , she is able to sustain herself and relations with family and contribute to Sustainable Development based on her own choices in favor of sustainability by practicing Baha’i Values of mutual trust transparency Unity , love and gender equality like male and female as two wings of one bird and sustaining relations of the couple with both sides of families. She shared how she and her husband Jimmy McGilligan had a very simple and waste- free Baha’i marriage ceremony .They also made a choice to lead a sustainable life style and developed the Barli Campus as a model of Sustainable in terms of food ,energy and harmonious relations with all those working and living there. Both of them chose to lead sustainable life and empower tribal girls from tribal communities and living sustainably. 

Rohit Aggarwal, Director of Swaaha Company and his wife Pooja shared their story of Eco friendly marriage after inspired by Janak didi 's workshop about importance of ‘Zerowaste Weddings’ in 2017.He also told One zero waste will save 5000 kg of waste in Indore .

 Many youths announced their resolution to practice zero -waste marriage and sustainable married life. Participants included students and parents keen to learn about sustainable marriage . 

Chief Guest of the program Dr Pratibha RajGopal Professor(Retd) Public Administration RCVP Noronha Academy of Administration and Management Bhopal ,Chairperson and Chief of Mediation Centre ,applauded the real life experience of Janak didi and her husband Jimmy made their own life sustainable together as a role model that has impacted thousands of tribal girls becoming positive ambassadors of Sustainability in their communities and this workshop will prevent all the fragile and breaking marriages This is the best preventive measure to save and sustain marriages and Social Fabric of India and save Mother Nature.

Pro Rajeev Sangal former Director IIT BHU and IIIT Hyderabad the Guest Of Honor appreciated the importance of this workshop on much needed issue of Sustainable Married life to sensitize , educate the youngsters and parents to follow such practices as solutions to Social , Environmental and Economic Challenges faced by India at this time, when the entire world is suffering from pollution. He emphasized the importance of humans as spiritual beings , should live aligned with Nature .His wife Nisha Sangal Shared the story of Zerowaste marriage of their daughter due to her strong will and determination and making this choice . Rajendra Ochani sang a song in praise of Jimmy and Janak for inspiring him celebrating rakhi festival by planting trees since 1986 till now..

Interns trained by Janak Palta McGilligan shared their transformational decisions : Nilesh Chauhan MSW shared he is inspired by last year workshop to start a company as an Entrepreneur to organize Zero- waste and sustainable Wedding Ceremonies and already formed a group of "Say No to plastic " Sidharth Lodhi resoved to will bring back old Indianfoods and serving in leafplates and no more plastic in their village . Tuhina Jha MA Economics Student resolved to lead and ecofriendly life and not just marriages but all celebrations plastic free. Another MSW intern of Janak didi Padma Jarwal narrated since 2020 ,she has educated 125 schools children and teachers about Ecofriendly life and she herself practices . Prateek Jain has changed his catering business and opted for Sustainable livelihood . 

Prominent Environmentalists, Social workers, Nisha Sangal ,Dr Dilip Waghela , Kirti Sikka, Aditi Gautam Kale Srushti Sisodia , Bharat Jaat an IT expert , Bharati Batra and Nitya from Indore and many MSW students from School of Social Science &School of Economics from DAVV participated and enjoyed this workshop.

 Botany Pro Jaishree Sikka conducted the workshop in a very interesting and lively way.

 Eminent Social worker Mr Virendra Goel , Trustee of the Jimmy and Janak McGilligan Foundation For Sustainable Development, gave the Vote of thanks to the Chief Guest , Guest of Honor and all the participants for taking their time to be part of this workshop and wish all to take this movement further .  

All the refreshments were organically home grown and healthy, absolutely zero waste. Everyone enjoyed and appreciated.