Assam government to give 30K to every bride gold purchase from Jan 1
Guwahati/IBNS: Aiming to reduce child marriage and strengthen women empowerment, Assam government will spend Rs 800 crore per year under the Arundhati scheme through which every bride of the state will get Rs 30,000 to purchase gold.
Assam Finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said in Guwahati that, the Assam cabinet on Tuesday approved the scheme and the same will come to effect from January 1, 2020.
“Assam government has decided in our budget that, we will give one tola of gold to the bride, if a marriage is solemnized and registered. Because, if you register a marriage then there will be a minimum age which is notified as 18 years and 21 years for the bride and bridegroom. So, yesterday we have passed that particular scheme. Now any marriage which will be registered, the bride will get Rs 30,000 from the state government to purchase gold. But, to have benefited from the scheme, your minimum age has to be 18 years and 21 years and you have to Class 10 passed,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
The Assam minister further said that – “It is a part of our larger women empowerment policy. So that in Assam, you can establish a correct age of marriage 18 and 21 years and also you get a society which is full of educated boys and girls. It will cost around Rs 800 crore annually. Gold has a value, gold goes up, it is a security.”
Under the scheme, the bride and her guardians' (father, mother) annual income should be maximum Rs 5 lakh.
The benefit under the scheme can be availed upon formal registration of the marriages under the Special Marriage (Assam) Rules, 1954 and will reach the beneficiaries right at the time for the social marriage.
The Assam minister said that it will be confined in first marriage only.
The minimum educational qualification has been initially relaxed for the Tea garden and Adivasi tribes.
In Assam, in average three lakh marriages take place every year and out of these marriages, only 50,000-55,000 marriages are registered.
It is to be mentioned that, the Assam Finance minister had announced the scheme in the state budget for the financial year 2019-20.
(By Hemanta Kumar Nath, Guwahati)
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