SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir government has disbursed Rs 700 crore to beneficiaries under the State Marriage Assistance Scheme since 2015.
This year so far, the government has disbursed Rs 150 crore to the unmarried girls from financially weak families.
Under the scheme, an unmarried girl from an Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) family is given Rs 75000 cash assistance for marriage. Likewise, the girl from the Priority Household (PHH) family is entitled to Rs 50,000 cash assistance. The girls can apply online, and after a background check, the money is transferred directly into their accounts.
In 2022, the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Council restructured the State Marriage Assistance Scheme to provide benefits to all Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Household (PHH) families.
“More than 1.45 lakh girls have been covered under the scheme so far. Earlier, unmarried girls from BPL families were provided cash assistance. Now, each AAY beneficiary is provided Rs 75000 cash, while a girl from a PHH family gets Rs 5000 marriage assistance. So far, more than Rs 700 crore have been disbursed among the beneficiaries. This year so far, we have disbursed Rs 150 crore,” a senior officer told The Kashmir Monitor.
Expanding the scheme, the government has decided to repeal the 8th standard pass clause in the State Marriage Assistance Scheme. The Omar Abdullah Cabinet has approved amendments to remove the educational qualification requirement under the State Marriage Assistance Scheme.
The decision comes two months after the Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh High Court asked the Union Territory administration to re-examine the education clause in the State Marriage Assistance Scheme (SMAS).
A division bench of Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal disposed of the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Abdul Hamid Rather with a direction to the government to reconsider the clause.
Earlier, the government had issued an order fixing Class 8 as the minimum qualification for the girls to avail the benefits of the scheme. However, it triggered a chain reaction with people questioning the move.
It may be noted that thirty-five years of turmoil have torn apart the social fabric in Kashmir. Late marriages, infertility, and a depleting sex ratio have become rampant in Kashmir. National Family Health Survey data for 2019-20 have revealed that J&K has one of the lowest fertility rates in the country. J&K has also recorded the highest decline in the fertility rate between the 2015-16 survey and the latest one. In 1991, the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in Jammu and Kashmir was 3.6. It declined to 2.3 in 2007, and now it has started to ring alarm bells in society.