The Odisha government has enhanced the incentives for inter-caste marriage among Hindus, an Odisha minister said.
Odisha's ST and SC Development Minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi said that the government has decided to increase the inter-caste marriage incentive from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh.
The decision would be implemented with retrospective effect from September 2017, he said yesterday.
The minister clarified that the marriage in which one of the spouses belonged to the SC community and the other belonged to an upper caste, will be considered for the incentive.
The incentive amount would be deposited in a joint account of the couple in any nationalised bank and they would be able to withdraw the amount only after three years of marriage, he said.
The amount would be given to the beneficiaries, irrespective of their economic background.
Majhi said they can purchase land or other household articles with the money.
In 2017-18 fiscal, as many as 543 couples availed the benefit, for which the state government spent Rs 2.65 crore as incentive.
Similarly, 3,800 married couples availed the incentives under the provision in the last five years.
The maximum number of married couples to get the benefit were from Balasore district followed by Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur districts.
The state govenrment had increased the inter-caste marriage incentive from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh in 2017, officials said.
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