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Mass wedding scheme to cover more districts
The western Maharashtra state plans to extend to all its 29 districts a scheme that it tried out in six drought-hit districts to help poor farmers and farm labourers marry off their daughters.
- By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
- Published: 00:45 May 1, 2008
Mumbai: The western Maharashtra state plans to extend to all its 29 districts a scheme that it tried out in six drought-hit districts to help poor farmers and farm labourers marry off their daughters.
The "Shubhmangal" scheme received good response from farmers' families in the cotton-belt of Vidarbha region, where debt-ridden farmers have been committing suicide.
Under the scheme, 18,588 weddings have been performed in the last three years, for which the government released a grant of Rs190 million (Dh17 million). Around 1,350 mass weddings have been performed in each district of Vidarbha at a cost of Rs149,000, with the state providing a subsidy of Rs11,000 for each wedding.
The extension of the scheme would cost the state about Rs500 million.
To be eligible for this scheme, the bride and bridegroom would have to be a resident of the Maharashtra state with the groom not below 21 and the bride not below 18. The bride should be a farmer's daughter.
Though grants under the scheme is meant for only those getting married the first time, a second marriage will be considered if the bride is a widow or a divorcee. A minimum of 10 couples are required to conduct a mass wedding.
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