In an effort to eliminate caste discrimination, the Indian government has come up with an innovative approach – offering couples payment for marrying into a lower caste. They believe this will work to reduce deep rooted social tensions in Indian society brought about by caste differences. The social justice minister Mrs Meira Kumar from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment undoubtedly favors this resolution, saying
“In our caste ridden society is someone breaks out of the mould and marries outside of the caste, we want to give them this money ($1100) as a token of our appreciation. We want to make an example of them so that others will follow them”. BBC NEWS
She further divulged that she is working to make the minimum payment amount $1100 around the country so that people will have more incentive to marry outside their caste.
Since we are all materialistic to some degree, this plan initially sounds fruitful. However, I think this is a ridiculous idea. I’m all for trying to merge the castes together and trying to blur the line between the different castes, because I think the caste system is bogus. However, paying people off to marry outside their caste? What’s next, paying people off to stop abusing their significant other or paying them to curb unwanted habits? While this is a classical form of positive reinforcement, it’s highly likely to crumble. This is because people will start marrying outside their caste for the money, and what after that? What happens when the money runs out and marriage life sets in? Will one partner feel indebted to the other because he/she did them a favor by marrying them? Seems like a dangerous path to follow.
Apart from reeking of failure, this is an extremely weak initial step to undermine the caste system. Even after marriage, the families of the bride and groom and possibly the newlyweds themselves may not be adjusted to thinking past their caste differences. This will create additional animosity within the family, because the problem is not dealt with at its core; rather, it is brushed to the side, covererd up with a bandaid, and forgotten for a brief period of time. The way to promote comradery between castes is through education. This way they can learn why the caste system is useless and why it is cause for so many disputes. While this might take longer then simply paying off couples for a quick (yet inevitably temporary) fix, at least it will seek to uproot narrowmindedness at its inception. Monetary rewards are satisfying in the present time, but they will be shadowed by inherent differences that present themselves after marriage, and the situation will be unnecessarily exacerbated.
September 15, 2006 at 1:56 am
Ever think that some people may be deceitful enough to claim on government paper to be another caste just to marry who they are meant to wed? I could claim to be of the artisan caste, not the brahmin I really am, and will still me marrying that other Brahmin.
September 15, 2006 at 9:09 am
possibilities for deceit or not, this does sound like an idea. To me, it is more like the state putting its stamp of acceptance on the concept.
September 15, 2006 at 1:06 pm
This is not the best way to handle this problem. This is a hacking solution what is called as juggad in India.And as we know hacking or jugaad doesn’t last long. Solution to this problems lies somehere else. One of the solution is in educating people. Enforcing law to be more stringent to avoid such parcatices in palces. Removing old religious non sense aspect from our cultural values, which are in good no.
This to me is a waste of money.
Vishal
September 16, 2006 at 12:53 pm
Might not be the greatest of ideas, especially considering the potential of misuse. But still it sends a positive message of intent in breaking down barriers of caste.
September 16, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Good idea. I will definitely make a living out of this by calling myself low caste and marrying someone of my caste and pocketing half the money and divorcing within 2 days of the marriage. At least, I will be able to recover all the taxes that are being deducted from my salary and ensure that my tax money comes to me instead of being with the corrupt govt which will only misuse the tax that I pay.
September 16, 2006 at 8:49 pm
A penny for your Inter-caste marriages, please. « The Great Indian Mutiny
A penny for your Inter-caste marriages, please. « The Great Indian Mutiny posted at IndianPad.com
September 18, 2006 at 6:44 pm
Indeed it is a very good initiative to encourage lowering of gap between upper cast &lower cast. TO encourage this system govt. may provide social reward due to which people’s view about intercaste marriage changes.This effort shouldbe treated as initiation not final ,in near future govt. will provide many facilities to reduce the gap .
September 19, 2006 at 8:22 am
[...] I could write up a list a foot long about how daughters are better children and more affectionate and caring but it wouldn’t matter a bit…It’s hard for people to change their beliefs. Maybe the government should spend the extra money it has on advertising about Girl Power instead of on promoting inter-caste marriages [...]
October 1, 2006 at 11:06 am
hey all…just came across this website…do you all actually believe this will change people’s attitude towards those of the so-called lower caste. I am not living in india right now….but i recently made a trip home to madras…people are all living together happily in the sense that all of them get to follow their own lifestyles without compromising anything and isn’t this what should be the end result? what can one really achieve from inter-caste marriages? isn’t marriage supposed to be between people who share a common ground? why is caste even a question here? isn’t the government actually showing that a group of people are actually considered to be lower-caste? people should just be left on their own..and no point fighting the natural instinct “birds of a feather flock together”. Instead they should promote acceptance of each other. somehow this will only lead to more divorce rates.
October 15, 2006 at 10:34 pm
This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks for the great information.
January 14, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Hey everyone…just came across this blog. I was tempted to read people response on this since i’m who belong to so called upper caste family, engaged with a guy from lower caste. This idea of rewarding people for marrying intercaste is ridiculous. Marriage with money … it can not work. When you really think you want to marry a person, the caste should come in the end. I agree with idea of providing education to overcome these caste barriers. If one reads thru the indian history, we would realize how these caste systems have evolved. Eventually they have been misinterperetd and misutilized by people itself and finally now have led to this huge issue of discrimination. If one asks me if after marriage i would want to take the benefits of these reservations, i would refuse totally. And i think this caste based discrimination at times adds to the reasons why the new-gen ppl like to settle down in other countries. If in future i get to become the victim, we would also plan the same rather than taking the money and reservation benefits.
Hey, government ..give me break…pride, honor, dignity & respect are important than money.
We are the only country following untouchability. India is full of talents & potential along with lack of education and povert. Make some better ideas for its uplifting. Rewarding people going for intercastemarriages in public could be a better idea than rewarding them with money.
When i hear the IndiaPoised Anthem, i feel my spirit uplifted but then i feel this increasing discrimination is spreading like a disease and breaking the spirit.
January 17, 2007 at 10:18 am
This useless Caste differences exist and will continue to remain
January 20, 2007 at 2:48 pm
i dont believe in inter castemarraiges
January 28, 2007 at 9:25 pm
hey s, if this caste system is really useless, it will not stand for long. You tend to fight against it more when you are in such a situation like me. And that situation is beyond your own control. Someway or the other this system shall lose its effect and slowly the deep roots shall also loosen up.
February 12, 2007 at 12:39 am
whom should we meet in concerned to this assistance.
September 1, 2007 at 6:45 pm
I read almost all the comment posted here.Most of them thinks that it’s a stupid idea anticipating it’s misuse. Ok, It can be misused but think what is the message it’s sending to our society is that our government supports it. Dude, out of 50 misused if it has been used at least once it will far more fruitful. This may be one if the medium to educate the ppl. I strongly support it and I request the government to bring out some more ideas. The only thing is that ppl should be well aware of it. As far as I know very less ppl know about this reward even now.
I am also one of the victim of this castism problem. I reqest to the ppl. to start fighting against it. Come in full support with such kind case you come across. We are in 20th century. We are proud to being called as developing country. Do you think we are developing with these type of social problem still exist in our society ????????
May 5, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I agree to it, because of these social evils we are still a developing country, we must not support the castism, just becasuse of bothering about these minor things our development is obstacled.
How can one talk about misuse of this provision as Indians are generally married once in their life so just for the sake of some money would someone choose a wrong partner this thought seems to be ridiculous.
Please open your eyes and try breathing in a healthy thinking environment.
June 26, 2009 at 3:35 pm
hi,
I completely agreed with this reply. We always think about the negative side of anything first and then it doesn’t remain with any positive things. The Main IDEA behind this scheme is to eliminate caste barriers between the community and to give equal rights and not money in direct sense my friend, money in this scheme is a reward points what your are encouraged for. Everyone knows what kind of caste system is followed in our country. I strongly say “Mera Bharat Mahan” in the school time, but I think we are not great like other developing countries bcoz how can we be great where you are scrutinized on grounds of castes.
I appreciate this particular move of the govt. to encourage ppl.
July 7, 2008 at 12:00 pm
i was born a Brahmin, but i like my darker skinned Indian beauties more than the ugly,fat, pale, privileged white to light-skinned Brahmin women.
The darker the skin color of the beauty, the prettier she is to me. I do not care about caste or dark skin color. How can i marry a lower caste dark skin Indian Hindu woman, is the a website avaliable for this, perhaps with pictures of the ladies? Any help, reply here and email me directly at tigdutt@yahoo.com
Thanks…Ghansham, a USA citizen from Amrica.
August 14, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Guys, I’m a Brahmin boy, I’m in love with a SC girl. I’m really worried of future. This stupid caste comes in the way of marriage. We are loving each others very much. But my family doesn’t support us. Can anybody tell me a website or organisation which supports inter-caste marriages, I want support. Any help, mail me to:
vinay.universe@gmail.com
Thanks….
September 21, 2008 at 10:51 am
[...] A criticism of Social welfare department’s award of $1100 for intercaste marriages (Immature criticism) [...]
September 22, 2008 at 11:46 am
Govt must freely give Handguns to all Inter-Caste marriage couples so that they can protect themselves from their irrational Relatives and Casteism in the society.
November 6, 2008 at 7:36 am
Guys & girls, we all know there are popular sites for matrimonials in india but all the sites are encouraging the castism! even they spread their ads with cast, Is there any professional supporting site for inter-castemarriages? if no, Can you ppl support me to start a service for that? yes, I am going to start a website to give support(by ppl who are already inter-caste married couples) and get support (for ppl who wants to arriange their inter-caste marriage), I think this will help ppl(lovers) and educate them and spread among ppl like any other social networking site and promote inter-castemarriages among next young generations, and our site supports and help couples to solve the different types of problems they face. Please send me an email those who are willing to support this project.
email:ramki002@indiyaa.com
Thanks….
Ramki002
November 25, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Hey i like your idea. Please contact me by email
November 25, 2008 at 6:49 pm
hELLO USE MY EMAIL ID an59@in.com
February 9, 2009 at 4:10 pm
I dont think what you are doing wrong anyway.Even the State Government of Maharashtra( Social Affairs Dept.)does the same thing here in India.They offer Rs.15000 to all those who do Intercaste Marriage.My own parents had done INTERCASTE MARRIAGE in 1985 & took benifits of this scheme.
However it is expected that you not only offer the money to such people who marry intercaste but also take care as to the couple is good for each other OR there is no bad thing in their marriage like force,etc,
I am an MBA student in Nasik,Maharashtra.As a part of the course requirement I am doing 1 social project which is on ‘INTERCASTE MARRIAGE’.So if possible do help me the way you can in my project by providing usefull inputs OR You can seek from me the same.
March 14, 2009 at 5:56 pm
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p.s. You have an awesome template . Where did you find it?
April 15, 2009 at 5:33 pm
If you ever want to see a reader’s feedback
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May 5, 2009 at 2:46 pm
This is a good initiative, but now as the new generation is coming up these social evils are gradually diminishing. So in future this provision might not be required.
May 21, 2009 at 1:31 pm
hi this is suri,
this idea seems to be a good one, i am going to marry a lower cast girl soon. so please assist me how to claim that reward from govt. i am from hyd, andhra pradesh
July 14, 2009 at 2:41 pm
hi im vikas caste is no mattet i love my wife who belong to sc caste some say u get benifit for that so tell me how can i get benifits thanks
December 12, 2009 at 8:54 am
Whether it is boy or girl, they should not get married if they have parents to decide.It is parents who ought to take decisions about the products/off-springs future. Whether it be company or family ..they have their own faith and practices for the betterment of their children. They have their own brand or faith respectively for a better product or better generation.
Family is society…. Society is family. Otherwise everybody can live in godowns…
December 27, 2009 at 9:51 am
I don’t think this is a good idea. Its true that intercaste marriages are the only way to eliminate castism but promoting it with monetary gains should be the last resort as there are more chances of people misusing it. I think the best way to eliminate castism is through education. Its very hard to knock some sense in to all those incorrigible old idiots who think caste is their identity and something to be proud of. Therefore, it is imperative to instil anti-castism ideas right from young age. It should be taught as lessons in schools and universities. People should learn to respect and accept others for what they’re. That’s the real unity in diversity.
Castism is one of the things that make me cringe when i think about India. It’s the only thing we all should be ashamed of and work towards cleansing the nation. Though i am not an Indian citizen anymore, i feel responsible for being part of this sinful act by doing nothing against it.
I am planning to visit all those secondary schools near my native place during my next visit and give them an awareness talk on this topic.
I shared my views hoping, at least one of the readers will get motivated and do their part in disbanding castism. No offence intended.