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Good News from J&K! Wedding bells ring for 5,000 underprivileged girls

Wedding bells have started ringing for 5,000 underprivileged girls in the restive Jammu and Kashmir. 

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Photo for representational purpose only. (AFP File)
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Wedding bells have started ringing for 5,000 underprivileged girls in the restive Jammu and Kashmir. 

Thanks to Mehbooba Mufti government, more than 5,000 girls were provided financial assistance under State Marriage Assistance Scheme (SMAS) in this fiscal.

"Under State Marriage Assistance Scheme (SMAS), 5000 unmarried girls were provided financial assistance amounting Rs 20 lakh during 2017-18",  said Sajad Gani Lone,  Jammu and Kashmir Minister for Social Welfare.

Under SMAS the government provides one-time financial assistance of Rs 25,000 and five-gram gold from the Social Welfare department to poor girls living below poverty line who may not find themselves in a position to marry due to financial constraints.

Launched in 2015, the SMAS was aimed at facilitating the poor girls with requisite financial support to enable them solemnize their marriages. Official figures reveal that around 6589 beneficiaries, who were found eligible to receive the assistance as per guidelines of the scheme, have been brought under the ambit of SMAS upto August 31, 2017.

Twenty seven years of conflict and bloodbath has torn apart the social fabric in conservative Kashmir. Late marriages, infertility and depleting sex ratio has become rampant in the Kashmir valley.   

A study conducted by the Sociology department at University of Kashmir in 2009 revealed shocking facts about the fallout of the turmoil.   According to the study, an overwhelming majority of 88 per cent of respondents opined that conflict situation in Kashmir has contributed to the emergence of the late marriages, a phenomenon unheard of before the onset of militancy in 1990.

Mehbooba Mufti-led government had recently revised the timelines to ensure speedy and effective implementation of the State Marriage Assistance Scheme (SMAS) and deal strictly with inordinate delay in settling the cases.

Complying with the directions of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, the government has already issued a circular, in modification to its earlier version, detailing the revised timelines.

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