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The cancellation of a popular marriage assistance scheme for girls that has existed in Tamil Nadu for three decades, launched by then chief minister J Jayalalithaa, has led to a war of words between her party AIADMK and the ruling DMK. The DMK government of M K Stalin has replaced this with a flat Rs 1,000 monthly aid for girls pursuing higher education.
The divided AIADMK factions, in V K Sasikala and Edappadi K Palaniswami camps, came together to condemn the decision to scrap the Thalikku Thangam Thittam scheme.
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Under the scheme, a bride who had studied up to Class 10 (even if she did not clear it) was entitled to assistance of Rs 25,000 and 1 sovereign gold coin at her wedding; while the aid would go up to Rs 50,000 and 1 sovereign gold coin for those who had completed college degrees or diplomas. In case of brides belonging to Scheduled Tribes, the requirement was education up to Class 5.
The idea was to ease the monetary burden of families as well as encourage girl education.
In a statement, Sasikala said the cancellation of the scheme would “destroy hopes” of mothers of girls.
However, as per the DMK, it decided to replace the scheme as it was “mired in corruption and flagged for long-delayed payments”.
Speaking in the Assembly, Stalin pointed out that the DMK too had supported the scheme – the aid amount that at the time of the launch in 1989 was Rs 5,000 had been increased to Rs 25,000 by the DMK’s M Karunanidhi in 2009. In 2011, the AIADMK had further raised the aid amount and gold quantity. However, Stalin added, a review of the scheme had revealed major irregularities. “There are 44 corruption cases registered against senior government officials in connection with this scheme,” he said, adding that the new scheme would benefit many more.
Presenting the Budget with provisions for the new scheme, Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said: “We didn’t want to destroy a good scheme. But there were several issues. There is a backlog of some three lakh cases, and 24% of them will be eligible now. (Earlier) those who were to be benefited, payments were long delayed, up to three-four years. What is the purpose of such a scheme?”
The DMK has also claimed that the new scheme, unlike the previous one, would not “encourage dowry”. “When we can directly incentivise female education through the new scheme, that will benefit about five lakh students monthly, why should we continue an un-reformable old scheme?” the party has said.
While successive governments in Tamil Nadu are known for the welfare schemes announced by them, Jayalalithaa by virtue of her gender and the image of Amma cultivated by her held an upper hand among women voters. As CM, she had also introduced the cradle baby scheme to tackle female foeticide and gender-based abortions in the 1990s; raised the maternity leave for women government employees from three to six and later to nine months; Amma Master Health Check-up package for women; Amma Baby Care Kit for newborns and their mothers; apart from Amma grinder, mixie, table fan schemes and Amma self-help group networks.
