A Crucial Rule Change in J&K's Marriage Assistance Scheme for Very Poor Women Has Left Many Ineligible

Srinagar: Meenu Jan was barely in the first week of her marriage in April this year when she got a phone call from Jammu and Kashmir’s social welfare department.

“Had I known what was going to happen, I would have delayed the wedding by another year or two,” Jan, who works as a tailor with a self-help group in a central Kashmir village told The Wire.

Weeks before her wedding, the 26-year-old applied for financial aid under a government scheme to support women who come from the poorest of the poor families of Jammu and Kashmir and wish to get married.

The State Marriage Assistance Scheme was rolled out in 2015 following court observations by then J&K chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

In 2022, the Union territory topped the official list of states and Union territories with the highest number of of unmarried persons aged up to 29 years.

When the marriage scheme first began, each beneficiary got Rs 25,000 in cash and the cost of five grams of gold. Over the years, however, the assistance has increased to Rs 50,000 for women who belong to families with ‘Priority Household’ ration cards and Rs 75,000 for those who are listed in Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) ration cards.

“A physical verification is also done to verify the antecedents of beneficiaries,” said an official in the social welfare department, the nodal agency for the implementation of the scheme in J&K.

But under a new rule announced by lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha’s administration in 2022 (Government Order No.49-JK(SWD) of 2022) which came into effect in April this year, only those women who are Class 8 graduates are now eligible for the scheme.

Director of social welfare department (Kashmir), Mohammad Akbar Wani, refused to share official data about the number of women whose applications have been rejected since the new rule came into effect, saying that he was “busy in a meeting”.

However, the official quoted above said that the new clause has removed a crucial social security net from more than half of the prospective beneficiaries who may have dropped out of school before graduating Class 8 “because of economic stagnation or family emergencies”.

Citing government figures, the official said that 1,312 female applicants were provided aid under the scheme in 2022-23 in Budgam district. This went up to 2,654 in 2023-24 and 2,650 in 2024-25. “Till date, we have cleared only 423 applications in three months and it is the peak season,” the official said, requesting anonymity.

'Defeats purpose'

In 18 districts of Jammu and Kashmir where 2.81% of the population lives below the poverty line, per the NITI Aayog report last year, officials said that thousands of young girls from disadvantaged backgrounds will be hit by the new rule that will put extra financial burden on their poor families. This data, incidentally, has been contested by the opposition Congress.

Noor Ahmad Baba, former Dean of Social Science at the University of Kashmir, said that the new rule defeats the purpose of the scheme as those people with generally lesser or no education tend to be more deserving of financial aid as compared to those who have got higher education.

“The then government’s policy didn’t make education compulsory for beneficiaries who are socially backward. Depriving those who are already disadvantaged doesn’t look logical and the decision goes against common sense,” he said.

Kashmiri women working at a self help group in Fateh Kadal locality of Srinagar. Photo: Ubaid Mukhtar

'How can we repay the debt now?'

Jan whose father passed away when she was a child had to drop out of school in Class 7 because of the deteriorating health of her mother who sometimes worked as a daily wage labourer to raise her three children. Jan's sister is already married.

Over the years, Jan said that the earnings from a small apple orchard left by their father have dwindled drastically due to rising inflation, leaving her family with no to little savings.

With her meagre earning from her self-help group job, Jan, who belongs to AAY family (Book No: 094672) lent a helping hand to her younger brother, a graduate who also works for daily wages in the agriculture sector, to meet household expenses.

When her marriage was arranged earlier this year, Jan applied for aid.

Officials at the social welfare department assured her that she had met all the requirements and only the usual bureaucratic hiccups were delaying the release of funds. While the scheme's guidelines state that the money should be credited directly to the beneficiary account before the wedding, it has not been the case with a majority of beneficiaries.

According to a preliminary analysis of official data accessed by The Wire, more than half of the cases in Budgam district were processed months after the beneficiaries were already married.

“Same situation exists in other districts of J&K,” said another official from the social welfare department who didn’t want to be identified because he is not authorised to speak with the media.

Jan said that she managed the expenses of her wedding by taking loans from friends and neighbours, “My mother can’t even buy her own medicines. How can we repay the debt now?” she said.

'Where is my fault?'

Joziya Gul, a Class 7 drop-out from Chalyan village in Budgam district, applied for aid earlier this year in the hope that it would help her father make up for the expenses of her wedding.

The family of Hilal Ahmed, her husband who trades in wood, had successfully applied for aid under the scheme last year to meet the expenses of his sister’s wedding.

Ahmed said that he was confident that Gul, who is listed in AAY ration card (Book No: 164027) would be extended the same courtesy.

The wedding was a low-key function attended by few close relatives and next-door neighbours, “A bride can’t wear old clothes on her wedding day. Her father is a daily wage labourer and we were hoping that the aid would help him in repaying some of the debt,” said Ahmed.

However, with the new rule in place, Gul is unlikely to get the aid.

Social activist Raja Muzaffar Bhat described the rule as 'unjustified and unconstitutional'. “Does this mean that the poor, the illiterate, or school dropouts have no right to marry? This order is unconstitutional and will only increase the burden on the poor, who will become poorer due to new debts. It should be cancelled immediately,” he said.

Jan, the tailor, said that if she had a support system at home, she might have continued her education.

“It is because of my family’s poverty that I was not able to continue my studies. My mother didn’t remarry and when she fell ill, there was no one to take care of our family. Where is my fault in this?”

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