Editorial»
Cost of the union
JUN 28 -
If the government failure to meet the baseline target of 200 marriages between Dalits and non-Dalits through a bonus scheme is any guide, the social barriers to inter-caste marriage in the country are still high. The government had in its last budget announced Rs. 100,000 in incentives for marriage between a Dalit and a non-Dalit. It was hoped that at least 200 inter-caste couples would tie the knot during the fiscal year. So far just 50 couples have successfully claimed the government grant.
But it would be unwise to judge the scheme’s effectiveness purely on the basis of the number of inter-caste marriages during a year’s time; entrenched social beliefs are not amenable to short-term solutions. Then there is the moral question: is it right to give people monetary incentives to marry? Isn’t it likely to encourage more and more people to marry for money? Similar questions had been raised after the government announced the provision of Rs. 50,000 in incentives for widows to remarry. The debate was so acrimonious that the Supreme Court had to step in and stay the provision.
We would like to believe the inter-caste marriage bonus was started with good intentions. And though there might be a few who would like to exploit the scheme, there is no reason to be cynical about most claimants. After all, it is unlikely that two people will agree to a marriage just to claim the money - as the couple must stay together for at least seven months after their marriage is registered to be eligible for the full benefit. The incentive, we believe, should rather be seen as a reward for daring to break the long-standing social taboo and showing others the right way forward.
As we said, rather than the number of couples who have successfully claimed the state benefit, the point of evaluation should rather be the quality of their married lives. If most of the beneficiary couples are happily married for a period of time, there is every reason to expand the scheme - maybe even raise the monetary benefits - till the time the social stigma attached with inter-caste marriage has been reduced to a desirable level.
What is important at this juncture is that the scheme’s effectiveness be evaluated and incentives adjusted accordingly. Abandoning the programme outright—which the government, thankfully, does not intend to do—just because some arbitrary target was not met will send out all the wrong signals. It will indicate the government’s lack of resolve to push through even the programmes it believes are important for the society’s progressive transformation. It is up to the policymakers to prove that they are not only interested in starting high-sounding social sector programmes but also capable of seeing them through to the end.
Posted on: 2010-06-29 08:10
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