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In a state where couples can be killed for marrying out of their caste, the Haryana government has stepped in to offer a Rs 50,000 cash incentive to those who want to break this cruel tradition
To encourage inter-caste marriage, the Haryana government is offering couples who enter into such marriages Rs 50,000 as cash incentive. Feudal mindsets and customs forbid such marriages, with family members and community panchayats going as far as to murder the “offenders” for defying the taboo. These are often called “honour killings” and Haryana has a high percentage of them. According to the police, eight such killings have occurred in the last six months alone. Veer Singh of Bachod village in Mahendergarh district and Renu of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, who belong to different castes, were recent beneficiaries of the state’s new scheme when they decided to tie the knot. The Narnaul district administration accepted their application and they received the money within a month of their wedding. Haryana minister Birender Singh said the scheme would give courage and be an incentive to young people who want to break outdated social barriers. Resistance to inter-caste marriages, often expressed in the form of threats, forcible separations and even murder, is common in the Jat heartland of the state which includes the districts of Rohtak, Sirsa, Rewari and Fatehabad. Recently, in Sirsa, 21-year-old Poonam was pushed into a canal for marrying a dalit boy, and in Fatehabad, a dalit boy Hoshiar Singh was murdered for marrying a Jat girl. Source: DNA, June 30, 2008
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