Keypoints:
- The Intercaste & Interfaith Marriage Incentive Scheme has been in place since 1976, initiated by the national integration department in Uttar Pradesh.
- The Uttar Pradesh government is planning to withdraw a scheme that has incentivised interfaith marriage for 44 years.
- Recently, UP government ordinance banned “forced” conversions too.
The National integration department in Uttar Pradesh initiated the intercaste and interfaith marriage incentive scheme in 1976.
Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which are strong votaries of law against “love jihad”, are caught in a curious situation — both states currently have schemes to encourage inter-religious marriages whereby Rs 50,000 is given to such couples.The scheme has been in place in both states for several years now. Both states could now scrap this scheme.
In Uttarakhand, the law against “love jihad” has been in place since 2018, to which the state government was left embarrassed after its social welfare department made public details of 18 couples who had benefitted from the incentive in the past one year.
Uttarakhand minister and the state government spokesperson Madan Kaushik said that,”The incentive for inter-religious marriages will no longer be given now on as we have a law against conversions in place since 2018. The necessary action to nullify this will be taken. We will only offer this incentive for inter-caste marriages”.
Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Ravat has marked an inquiry into the circular issued by the social welfare department.
The incentive for both inter-religious and inter-caste marriages had been effective since 1976 in UP and the same had continued in Uttarakhand too after the bifurcation of UP into two states, said a senior official in the UP government.
“With UP set to bring in an ordinance against illegal religious conversions, this scheme would be reconsidered,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. UP’s National Integration Department manages the scheme.
The step to scrap the incentive could, however, give a handle to the opposition as the proposed laws against “love jihad” only prohibit marriages for the sake of conversion and not inter-religious marriages. The Congress has already accused the BJP of having a hidden agenda of creating communal disharmony by bringing such a law.The Uttar Pradesh government had allocated Rs 10 lakh under this in its latest budget.
UP government spokesperson and minister Shrikant Sharma said, “The scheme does exist for now. I cannot comment on its continuation.” As for the backdrop — the anti-conversion ordinance — he added, “The ordinance means to stop forced conversion and punish those who hide their identity to cheat their partners.”
