Marriage assistance scheme comes as a boon for poor brides in Jammu and Kashmir

A helping hand for unmarried identified girls of the UT living below the poverty line

Launched in 2015, Jammu and Kashmir government’s state marriage assistance scheme (SMAS) has come as a saviour for thousands of poor brides in the union territory (UT).

The SMAS for poor girls is a social assistance scheme meant for those unmarried identified girls of the UT living below the poverty line (BPL) who may not find themselves in a position to marry due to financial constraint.

Widening its endeavour to reach out to the poor section of society, the government under this scheme is lending a helping hand to the poor families who couldn’t afford to marry off their daughters.

Under the scheme, an unmarried girl above 18 years of age belonging to the BPL family receives Rs 25,000 cash assistance and the cost of five grams of gold at the time of her marriage. Since its inspection in December 2015, more than 36,300 persons have been benefited under the scheme with the cumulative financial assistance of Rs 144.30 crore provided to the beneficiaries.

“To find a suitable match always for a girl always remains a tough task but for a poor man more cumbersome is expenditure a marriage incurs,” said Abdul Ahad (name changed), a resident of south Kashmir’s Shopian.

In 2018, he came to know about the scheme from a friend and wasted no time in completing formalities. “I was not financially well and getting my daughter married was a huge challenge for me. But in 2019, with the assistance from the government finally, I could achieve my dream,” the relieved father said.

During the 2020-21 financial year, the J&K government under the scheme, which is being run by the social welfare department, has sanctioned 8254 cases and provided assistance of Rs 32.78 crore. The highest number of marriage assistance cases were sanctioned for the Kulgam district of the Kashmir division with disbursement of Rs 4.20 crore.

The norms for availing benefit under the scheme are that the prospective beneficiary girl should be above 18 years of age, and should be an identified poor girl in the survey list available with the concerned officials.