Intercaste Marriage Support Scheme, Key To Social Change, Is Floundering

The Wire

13-06-2025

As we said earlier, this scheme provides financial assistance to intercaste couples who marry under the Hindu Marriage Act or the Special Marriage Act (SMA). One of the partners has to be from a Scheduled Caste, leaving out other marginalised groups.
'Dr. Ambedkar argued intercaste marriage is an important tool to annihilate caste. So people from other marginalised caste groups such as NT, DNT, ST should be included in such schemes,' said Milind Awad, modern India caste scholar and associate professor at JNU.
Within a year of the marriage, couples had to submit their Aadhaar cards, marriage certificate, joint bank account details, and a letter from the district collector/ social justice department certifying that the couple is not already availing the scheme's benefits, central or state.
Beneficiaries receive this grant in three chunks – an initial Rs 50,000 within a few months of the wedding, followed by Rs 1 lakh a year later and then the remaining Rs 1,00,000 after five years.
As we said, the grant is critical in helping many couples start their married lives because of the social and familial complications of an inter-caste marriage in India. In his experience of facilitating intercaste and inter faith marriages for over a decade now, Pune activist Abhijit Alka has seen couples being thrown out by their families, not supported or protected by the police and in financial distress.
'Those who marry [outside their caste] face strong opposition from families, and have to leave their homes. They need it [the support] most,' said Abhijit Alka, who runs the 'Right to love campaign' started by the Anhad social foundation, a non profit that works to facilitate intercaste and interfaith marriages.
In a country like India, where caste discrimination and caste atrocities are a part of everyday life, intercaste marriage, as Ambedkar said, can be a radical anti-caste tool. Jyotiba and Savtribai Phule, and Sahu Maharaj encouraged and supported the intercaste marriages within their families.
Despite a long history of anti-caste movements, Maharashtra continues to report 'honour' killings of men and women who enter intercaste marriages. As many as 19 murder cases have been reported in just two years in the state (16 in 2017 and 3 in 2018). Acknowledging the need for safe spaces for intercaste couples, the Sneh Aadhar Foundation and the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS) started a safe house in Satara five years ago. Shankar Kanase has been managing this space which provides free stay with protection, food and other basic necessities to the intercaste couples for up to one year.
'Patriarchal families, blinded by false ideas of caste pride, can torture and kill couples. So schemes that support and encourage inter-caste marriages should be implemented and made accessible,' said Kanase, joint secretary of the anti-caste division of MANS.
So far, 17 couples have sought shelter in the Satara safe house. Recently, the Bombay High Court, in reference with a Shaktivahini's (a non profit) petition in the supreme court, directed the Maharashtra government to establish such safe houses for the protection of inter-caste couples and interfaith couples.
Until these homes are built, the court has ordered that such couples be accommodated either in government guest houses or rented premises with adequate police protection. Following this, the home department of Maharashtra issued a notification on the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on May 13, 2025.
This SOP says a special cell should be formed at the district level, involving the superintendent of police, a social welfare official and the district women and child development officer to ensure the safety of these intercouples. If couples – both intercaste or interfaith and married as well as unmarried – approach the police with safety concerns, they should be immediately provided police protection and safe house for up to six months. For this, couples will be charged a minimal sum. They will also be provided support for marriage registration and offered free legal aid from the district or state legal services.
According to the National Crime Record Bureau's 2022 report, 18 cases of honour killings and 27 of murders traceable to caste issues were reported in India.