An indecent proposal

Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar says she is doing it for the best of intentions. She characterises her ministry8217;s move to fund inter-caste marriages as a 8220;gesture of appreciation8221; of such relationships. We do not doubt her intentions for a minute, but we do question their logic. The move smacks of gesture politics at their most facile, and gesture politics are essentially public relations exercises that lack both substance and credibility. But that is only a small part of the problem we have with this proposal.

There are two conceptual flaws inherent in its design, and one serious danger. The first conceptual flaw is that it views the institution of marriage not as a relationship that two people enter into of their own free will, but a commercial transaction in which the state in effect ends up paying the 8220;dowry8221; or 8220;bride/bridegroom price8221;. Two, it demeans Dalits, because implicit in the proposal is the idea that members of this community are somehow less equal/worthy, and therefore people marrying them need to be compensated financially in some manner. The danger is that it will most certainly lead to people quickly entering into marriages with Dalits for the express purpose of pocketing the state8217;s largesse of Rs 50,000, or whatever, and then exiting them just as rapidly. It will be women who will invariably suffer the worst consequences of such shot-gun affairs. Surely the minister agrees that a marriage, if it has to be meaningful, must rest on rather more sound foundation than pecuniary reward?

Meira Kumar would be far better employed working on the complementary proposal put forward by her ministry, providing quality education 8220;on a par with public schools8221; to Dalit communities. State-sponsored marriages are certainly not the answer to Dalit empowerment. The quicker the social justice and empowerment ministry divorces itself from the idea of these marriages of convenience, the better it will be for the country.