Kunwar Bai Nu Mameru Yojana (SEBC & EBC)

What is Kunwar Bai Nu Mameru Yojana for SEBC and EBC families?

Kunwar Bai Nu Mameru Yojana is a one-time marriage assistance scheme of the Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Government of Gujarat, run for socially and educationally backward class and economically backward class families by the Director, Developing Castes Welfare. The directorate lists the scheme with the code BCK-123.

The scheme pays Rs 12,000 to the family at the time of a daughter's marriage, credited by direct benefit transfer. The name comes from the Gujarati custom of mameru, the gifts a bride's maternal uncle brings to her wedding, and the scheme is also written locally as Kunwarbai Nu Mameru or Kuvarbai Nu Mameru. The state has, in effect, taken the maternal uncle's place for households that would otherwise borrow to meet wedding costs.

The numbers that define the scheme

• Rs 12,000 per daughter, paid once, by DBT.
• Available for up to two daughters in the same family.
• Annual family income ceiling of Rs 6,00,000, applied identically in rural and urban areas.
• Administered by the Director, Developing Castes Welfare, Block No. 4, 3rd Floor, Dr Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar.

The uniform Rs 6,00,000 income ceiling is worth pausing on. Many Gujarat welfare schemes set a lower rural limit than urban, which trips up applicants who assume the figures differ. Under BCK-123 the directorate applies the same Rs 6,00,000 line to a family in a village and a family in Ahmedabad.

This scheme is deliberately small. Rs 12,000 does not pay for a wedding; it offsets a part of one. What gives it weight is scale. The directorate's own performance figures for 2018-19 record 4,529 beneficiaries assisted in the other backward class category and 17,906 in the Scheduled Caste category under the same head, which is the order of magnitude the scheme operates at each year.

Who is eligible for the SEBC and EBC Mameru scheme?

A family qualifies if all of these hold:

• The family is resident in Gujarat.
• The family belongs to a socially and educationally backward class or an economically backward class recognised in Gujarat, evidenced by a certificate from the competent authority.
• Annual family income does not exceed Rs 6,00,000, whether the family lives in a rural or an urban area.
• The marriage is of an adult daughter, and she is the first or second daughter in the family to claim under the scheme.
• Both bride and groom are of legal marriageable age on the date of the marriage — 18 for the bride and 21 for the groom under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.

Who cannot apply

• A family outside the SEBC and EBC categories is not eligible under this head. Scheduled Caste families apply under the Scheduled Caste Welfare directorate's version, and Scheduled Tribe families apply to the Tribal Development Department through the eVanbandhu portal.
• A family with annual income above Rs 6,00,000 cannot apply, and an income certificate showing a higher figure ends the claim at scrutiny.
• A third daughter's marriage in the same family is not covered. The cap of two daughters is absolute and is checked against the directorate's records.
• A marriage where the bride is under 18 or the groom under 21 is not eligible, and is an offence in its own right.
• A family resident outside Gujarat cannot apply, even where the wedding itself is held in Gujarat.
• An applicant without a caste or class certificate from a Gujarat competent authority cannot apply on the strength of a certificate from another state.

What documents are required?

Register the marriage. A ceremony, however large and however many people attended, does not by itself create the document the file needs. The marriage certificate issued under the Gujarat Registration of Marriages Act is what the district office verifies, and obtaining it after the fact is the single slowest step for most families.

How to apply for Kunwar Bai Nu Mameru Yojana (SEBC and EBC)

1. Get the marriage registered first and collect the marriage certificate. Where the wedding was a Saat Phera Samuh Lagna, collect the mass-marriage record from the organising district office instead.
2. Assemble the certificates, the SEBC or EBC certificate and a current income certificate showing family income within Rs 6,00,000. Both are issued by the Mamlatdar or the Taluka Development Officer and both take time, so start them early.
3. Register on the e-Samaj Kalyan portal at esamajkalyan.gujarat.gov.in as a new citizen user, entering your name exactly as printed on Aadhaar, date of birth, Aadhaar number, caste, mobile number and email, then set a password.
4. Log in and complete your profile. The portal will not accept a scheme application against an incomplete user profile, which is where many first-time applicants stall.
5. Select Kunwar Bai Nu Mameru Yojana from the list of Developing Castes Welfare schemes shown for your category.
6. Fill the application form with the bride's and groom's details, the date of marriage, family income, and the bank account into which the Rs 12,000 is to be credited.
7. Upload the supporting documents as clear, readable scans, then accept the declaration and submit.
8. Print the submitted application and note the application number. This number is what you quote at the district office and in the portal's status screen.

How do I check the status of a Mameru application?

Log in to esamajkalyan.gujarat.gov.in with the credentials created at registration and open the application status screen, entering your application number. The case typically moves from submitted, to scrutiny at the district office, to sanction, and payment follows sanction.

If the case has not moved for several weeks, the office that holds it is the district Deputy Director (Developing Castes Welfare). Take the printed application, the application number and copies of the uploaded documents.

Why do Mameru applications get rejected?

• Income certificate above Rs 6,00,000, or an income certificate that has expired before the date of application.
• No registered marriage certificate, only wedding photographs, invitation cards or an affidavit.
• Third daughter claimed, where two daughters in the family have already been paid.
• Bride under 18 or groom under 21 on the marriage date, as revealed by the school leaving certificate.
• Caste or class certificate from another state, or a certificate for a community outside the SEBC and EBC lists.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, which lets the case be sanctioned but stops the DBT from crediting. This produces the frustrating situation of an approved application with no money, and it is fixed at the bank branch, not at the welfare office.
• Unreadable uploads. A dark or cropped photograph of a certificate is treated as a missing document and the application is returned.
• Application saved but never submitted, leaving nothing for the district office to scrutinise.

Where do I ask for help or complain?

• Director, Developing Castes Welfare, Block No. 4, 3rd Floor, Dr Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar: +91 79 23253245.
• District Deputy Director (Developing Castes Welfare) office, which scrutinises and sanctions applications and is the first place to escalate a stalled file.
• e-Samaj Kalyan portal help and technical support section, for registration and upload problems rather than eligibility questions.
• Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Government of Gujarat, at sje.gujarat.gov.in, is the administrative department.

There is no fee at any stage. The Rs 12,000 is credited directly to the family's own bank account, and anyone demanding a share of it, or a payment to "get the Mameru sanctioned", is not part of the process.