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Srinagar: Meenu Jan was barely in the first week of her marriage in April this year when she got a phone call from Jammu and Kashmir’s social welfare department.

“Had I known what was going to happen, I would have delayed the wedding by another year or two,” Jan, who works as a tailor with a self-help group in a central Kashmir village told The Wire.

Weeks before her wedding, the 26-year-old applied for financial aid under a government scheme to support women who come from the poorest of the poor families of Jammu and Kashmir and wish to get married.

The State Marriage Assistance Scheme was rolled out in 2015 following court observations by then J&K chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

In 2022, the Union territory topped the official list of states and Union territories with the highest number of of unmarried persons aged up to 29 years.

When the marriage scheme first began, each beneficiary got Rs 25,000 in cash and the cost of five grams of gold. Over the years, however, the assistance has increased to Rs 50,000 for women who belong to families with ‘Priority Household’ ration cards and Rs 75,000 for those who are listed in Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) ration cards.

“A physical verification is also done to verify the antecedents of beneficiaries,” said an official in the social welfare department, the nodal agency for the implementation of the scheme in J&K.

But under a new rule announced by lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha’s administration in 2022 (Government Order No.49-JK(SWD) of 2022) which came into effect in April this year, only those........

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