Sanchita Raina
Showing apparent ‘disrespect’ and ‘disregard’ to the sentiments of poor girls, as well as, policy makers of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, local cadre of Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has termed State Sponsored Scheme for poor girls in Jammu and Kashmir as ‘flawed’ and irrelevant’ on its official website.
As per the official website of J&K BJP, the State Sponsored Social Assistance Scheme for poor girls, commonly known as ‘State Marriage Assistance Scheme for Poor Girls (SMAS)’ is flawed and reiterates that marriage for girls is not the purpose of life.
“It is difficult to fathom the number of ways in which SMAS is flawed and the fact that it has been excerpted from a news report makes it even worse. First things first, coming up with schemes that provide such a kind of assistance just reiterates for the rural women and their families that nothing other than marriage is really the purpose of their life,” asserts official website of J&K BJP, adding that it is amusing how education is considered completely and casually out of the picture for rural women.
Surprisingly, the scheme was launched by the PDP-BJP Government vide Cabinet decision No. 164/13/2015 Dated:- 02.12.2015 and was accorded for implementation vide Govt. Order No. 248- SW of 2015 Dated:- 08.12.2015 in all the districts of Jammu Division, on the directions of the High Court in the case of Mohd Amin Beigh Vs State and others.
Under this Scheme, all the marriageable identified poor girls will receive one time financial assistance of Rs.25000/- and cost of 5 gms Gold for marriage purpose from the competent authority as provided in the scheme.
State Marriage Assistance Scheme for poor Girls is a Social Assistance Scheme meant for those un-married identified girls of the erstwhile State living below the poverty line who may not find themselves in a position to marry due to financial constraint.
Talking to The Typewriter, a senior BJP leader wishing not to be named stated that some poor guy has put it on the website without ‘application of mind’.
“This appears to be an exercise of copy and paste. I do not shy away from saying that the intellectual people in our party are not interested in looking into such matters, which significantly brings shame for the party,” he said and added that this is a grave mistake and the party should correct it immediately.
He, however, shared that there are numerous such instances, wherein material from known and unknown sources are shared on the official website and social media accounts of the party, without proper verification of the facts.
“I do not know why but this is the fact that those handling the social media and website of the party are either casual in their approach or they are not applying their minds before updating anything,” said BJP leader, adding that this pertinent ‘mistake’ is ‘unpardonable’, as it questions the policy of its own government.
He claimed that this scheme was launched by the BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir, keeping in view the surging problems of unmarried poor girls, especially in rural areas.
Pertinent to mention here that Jammu and Kashmir government has provided assistance of Rs 144 Crore to over 36000 beneficiaries under SMAS so far.
When contacted BJP Chief Spokesperson, Jammu and Kashmir, Sunil Sethi and Spokesperson Abhinav Sharma, they instead of responding to the query, allegedly removed the matter from website after screenshot was shared with them.
