This institute in Hyderabad claims to have cracked the code on how to live a happily married life. Situated in Balreddy Nagar, ‘Family Institute’ offers a ‘Dulhan Course’ to couples who wish to ‘live a successful married life’. The home management programme offers ‘Pre-Marriage Training’, ‘Post-Marriage Training’ and a ‘Best Mother’ course which involves giving parenting tips to moms.
Under the Dulhan Course, the institute offers cooking, sewing lessons along with beauty tips and financial management, which they promise will help their students ‘re-discover the value and impact of family home’.
“In India, there are courses on how to become great engineers and doctors but nothing that can teach one how to lead a successful married life,” says Illyas Shamsi, a Hyderabad-based Imam and social worker who started the course two years ago.
The institute offers workshops and seminars for Rs 5,000 per month.
“Our institute is open for everyone irrespective of their age, gender, religion, educational qualification or marital status even though most of our clients are Muslims. We have been successfully counselling people for the past two years,” he told InUth during a telephonic conversation. Shamsi says that the biggest problem between couples today is ego and misunderstanding. “I studied a lot of cases of divorce and I found that the reasons behind marital discord were trivial issues that could have been easily sorted,” he told InUth.
Even though the course has been running for two years, recently the institute decided to advertise it, calling it the ‘Pre-Marriage Training’ as the ‘Dulhan Course’, leading to intense criticism on social media for its sexist tone and message.
But Shamsi doesn’t agree. “It is the responsibility of both men and women. Both are equally responsible in ensuring a happy married life.” And the title ‘Dulhan Course’? That’s just innovative marketing, he says.
“The idea to promote it as ‘Dulhan Course’ is purely a marketing strategy. Who would have cared if it was just titled ‘home management’? Since we put up the advertisement, I have been getting around 50-60 calls daily. Most of them are appreciation calls,” he declares.
In September last year, Barkatullah University in Bhopal had proposed a short-term course to impart sociological and psychological skill training to the girls to make them ideal brides. The initiative was aimed at ‘women empowerment’ with the idea to make girls understand the dynamics of families and help them create healthy families and society.
(Feature image by Manimanjari Sengupta)
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