Marrying for money.

No, I'm not doing that. Yet.

I'm talking about some government plan to give a cash award of Rs. 50 thousand to couples that... er... perform an intercaste marriage. For those not in the know, India is a country stuck in the middle ages, where society is divided into castes and all citizens are untouchables, and people die of starvation every day, we haven't heard about electricity and I ride an elephant to work. Back to the point, the reason an intercaste marriage is such a big deal is because it is probably unacceptable to the families involved and in most cases unacceptable to the society in which they live, especially in non-cosmopolitan areas. Marriage is still mostly a group decision, where the immediate family plays a very important part, and the society in which the family lives or wants to continue living indirectly influences the decision. The "wants to continue" phrase creeps in because if one takes a decision against that society's norms you may be forced to move out (to a bigger city, where nobody cares) or you may yourself decide to move away to avoid nasty problems. (While the concept of an "arranged" marriage may sound funny to most Westerners, it may be the only way geeks can get married!)

So since an intercaste marriage is difficult for a person to enter, the government (in its infinite wisdom) thinks fit to pay out money to a couple which does exactly that. The purported reason for the incentive is that intercaste marriages somehow promote social equality and help to "eradicate the menace of caste". A noble reason, certainly. While fifty thousand rupees does not sound a lot, it may be a big sum to the people towards whom this scheme is targetted, the rural folk where the village opinion matters in day-to-day life and where caste-based discrimination seems to be entrenched as a way of life. To me, it's neither here nor there, because I will not get into an intercaste marriage for 50 thousand bucks, nor will I refuse an intercaste marriage merely because "society" feels unhappy with it. My main crib is about where the money is going to come from. That's right, the only place the guv'mint can get money if from me and you, via taxes. And when I get to this point, I really have to stop and wonder if this is the best utilization of my tax money.

It's not just the 50 grand. There will certainly be some guv'mint machinery set up for dealing with these "cases", people employed for doling out the money, politicians going to remote villages so that they can get photo-ops while giving out the large cheque to suitably impressesed couples, people to check whether the receipients are "valid" and "eligible", records to be kept, accounts to be maintained. Would it be worth it? Being the cynic that I am, I see a future where people will insist on intercaste marriages to earn the gov'mint dole, where people will keep the caste system alive just so that they can get married to someone from a different caste. We already see a rush by people to get themselves registered as "backwards", we will now see a rush for intercaste marriages; neither of the policies will cause the general public to ignore each others' castes.