Assam govt to give Rs 30,000 to every bride for buying gold

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Aiming to reduce child marriage and strengthen women empowerment, the Assam government will spend Rs 800 crore per year under the Arundhati scheme through which every bride in the state will get Rs 30,000 from the state government to purchase gold.

Assam Finance minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said in Guwahati that the state cabinet has approved the scheme and it will come to effect from January 1, 2020.

“Assam government has decided in our budget that we will give one tola [10gm] of gold to the bride if a marriage is solemnised 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 benefit from the scheme, your minimum age has to be 18 years and 21 years and you have to matriculate (Class 10 pass),” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

The Assam minister further said: “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 in 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, on average 3 lakh marriages take place every year and out of these marriages, only 50,000-55,000 marriages have been registered.