Two young women marry in the rural areas of Sundarbans with support from locals

A young same sex couple in the rural area of West Bengal’s Sundarbans has married on Wednesday (November 5, 2025), in a social ceremony as neighbours turned up in huge numbers to support their love even as families abandoned them. 

A video of the humble marriage ceremony at a local temple went viral on social media as the internet praised the locals for their support of the young lovers Riya Sardar (19) and Rakhi Naskar (20). 

“We met two years ago. We got married to each other 7 months ago. Recently, when everyone came to learn about this, they wanted to separate us. However, locals showed us support and helped us perform another social ceremony,” Ms. Naskar told The Hindu on Friday (November 7, 2025). 

Two days into their social marriage, the young couple has found a new family in their neighbours even as they remain scared about their family’s backlash. 

The ceremony was not a typical big-fat Indian wedding, but was rather filled with songs, dance, firecrackers, and a small garland exchange ceremony between the two women. Ms. Sardar was dressed in traditional Bengali groom attire , and Ms. Naskar dressed up as a Bengali bride, decked up in a red saari. 

As professional dancers, the duo met through a friend two years back and have fallen in love since. Ms. Sardar lost her parents at a young age and was raised by her uncle and aunt, who did not accept her after they learnt about her sexual preference. She was forced to leave home. 

“Be it a man or woman, if two people love each other, why can’t they get married and stay together? Two women can also stay together for a lifetime. Why is it a problem,” asked Ms. Sardar after their marriage ceremony was over and the couple participated in the celebrations. 

Though same-sex marriage is not legal in India, that did not matter to the village dwellers of Kultali in one of the most rural parts of Bengal inside the riverine Sundarban delta. They showed up in huge numbers to offer their blessings to the couple. 

“We have not seen such a thing before. We only saw it in movies. They love each other, so we came forward to get them married,” a local resident of the area said.