Band, Baja and baraat! Mehbooba Mufti government to speed up scheme to help poor, unmarried girls of Valley

Band, baja, baraat…at last, this will become a pleasant reality for the poor girls in the terror-plagued Jammu and Kashmir!

Mehbooba Mufti-led state government has revised the timelines to ensure speedy and effective implementation of the State Marriage Assistance Scheme (SMAS) and deal strictly with inordinate delay in settling the cases.

Under SMAS the government provides one-time financial assistance of Rs 25,000 and five-gram gold from the Social Welfare department to poor girls living below poverty line who may not find themselves in a position to marry due to financial constraints.

The 27 years of conflict and bloodbath has torn apart the social fabric in conservative Kashmir. Late marriages, infertility and depleting sex ratio has become rampant in the Kashmir Valley.

A study conducted by the Sociology department at University of Kashmir in 2009 revealed shocking facts about the fallout of the turmoil.

According to the study, an overwhelming majority of 88 per cent of respondents opined that conflict situation in Kashmir has contributed to the emergence of the late marriages, a phenomenon unheard of before the onset of militancy in 1990.

Complying with the directions of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, the government on Wednesday issued a circular, in modification to its earlier version, …read more