Inter-Caste / Inter-Religious Marriage Award

What is the Inter-Caste / Inter-Religious Marriage Award in Uttarakhand?

Inter-Caste / Inter-Religious Marriage Award is a one-time cash incentive paid by the Social Welfare Department, Government of Uttarakhand to couples who marry across caste or religious lines. The scheme is known in Hindi as the antarjatiya / antardharmik vivah protsahan puraskar, and the object stated in the rules is to encourage marriages that cut across social divisions and to support the couples who face family or community pressure as a result.

Uttarakhand pays Rs 50,000 under this award, given jointly to the couple. The amount was raised from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 in 2014 through an amendment to the Uttar Pradesh Antarjatiya / Antardharmik Vivah Protsahan Niyamawali, 1976, the rule set that Uttarakhand carried forward when it was created out of Uttar Pradesh in the year 2000. National reporting by The Tribune and India TV in 2020 described the state as actively paying these incentives to inter-caste and inter-faith couples under those rules.

The award covers two distinct situations:

• Inter-caste marriage; where one of the two spouses belongs to a Scheduled Caste as notified under Article 341 of the Constitution and the other does not. This Scheduled Caste condition is the defining test for the inter-caste arm of the scheme.
• Inter-religious marriage; where the husband and wife follow different religions. Reporting on the Uttarakhand scheme describes the incentive as available to legally registered inter-faith Indian couples.

Applications are handled at district level. The District Social Welfare Officer is the receiving and verifying authority, and several district administration websites in Uttarakhand, Almora among them; publish the application form for the inter-caste and inter-religion marriage promotion award on their forms page.

Key features

• One-time award of Rs 50,000, not a recurring benefit.
• Paid jointly to the couple, normally into a joint bank account.
• Claim window of one year from the date of marriage.
• The marriage must be legally registered.

Who is eligible for the Uttarakhand inter-caste marriage award?

A couple can be considered if:

• The marriage is legally solemnised and registered, and a marriage registration certificate is available.
• For an inter-caste claim, one of the two spouses belongs to a Scheduled Caste notified under Article 341 of the Constitution and the other spouse does not.
• For an inter-religious claim, the husband and wife follow different religions and the marriage is legally registered.
• Both spouses were of legal marriageable age on the date of marriage.
• At least one spouse is a resident of Uttarakhand, evidenced by a permanent residence certificate.
• The application is filed within one year of the date of marriage.

A couple cannot apply if:

• The marriage is not legally registered. An unregistered marriage cannot be verified and is not eligible.
• In an inter-caste claim, neither spouse belongs to a Scheduled Caste. A marriage between two general-category persons of different castes is not eligible under this arm of the scheme.
• Both spouses belong to the same caste and the same religion, in which case the marriage is neither inter-caste nor inter-religious.
• More than one year has passed since the date of marriage.
• Neither spouse is a resident of Uttarakhand.
• The couple has already received this award for the same marriage. It is a one-time benefit and cannot be claimed twice.

Couples in a second marriage, or where one spouse was already receiving a similar incentive from another state for the same marriage, should disclose that on the application. District offices check for duplicate claims across states before sanction.

What documents are required for the marriage award?

Register the marriage first. Everything else in this list flows from the marriage registration certificate, and the one-year clock starts on the date of marriage rather than the date of registration, so a delayed registration eats into the claim window.

How to apply for the Inter-Caste / Inter-Religious Marriage Award

1. Get the marriage legally registered with the registrar of marriages in your district or with the local body, and collect the marriage registration certificate.
2. Open a joint bank account in the names of both husband and wife, since the award is paid jointly to the couple.
3. Obtain the prescribed application form for the inter-caste and inter-religion marriage promotion award from the District Social Welfare Office, or download it from your district administration website — for example the forms page of almora.nic.in.
4. Fill in the form with the details of both spouses, the date of marriage, caste and religion of each spouse, and the joint bank account number with IFSC code.
5. Attach the documents; marriage registration certificate, caste certificate of the Scheduled Caste spouse, caste or religion proof of the other spouse, residence certificate, Aadhaar cards, age proof and the joint passbook copy.
6. Submit the application to the District Social Welfare Officer within one year of the date of marriage and collect the dated acknowledgement.
7. Attend the verification if the office calls the couple in person. District staff routinely verify that the couple is living together and that the caste and religion details are correct.
8. Track the file with the District Social Welfare Office using the acknowledgement number until the Rs 50,000 is credited to the joint account.

The Social Welfare Department also lists its schemes and online services on socialwelfare.uk.gov.in and the state's Apni Sarkar portal at eservices.uk.gov.in. Where an online form for this award is open in your district, the same document set applies; where it is not, the district office route above is the operative one.

How long does the award take and how is it paid?

Inter-Caste / Inter-Religious Marriage Award files move through the District Social Welfare Officer, who verifies the marriage, the caste or religion particulars and residence before sanctioning. Payment is made into the couple's joint bank account rather than in cash. Timelines vary by district and by the availability of budget allocation in the financial year, so a couple that applies late in the financial year may see the credit land in the next year's cycle.

Why marriage award applications get rejected

• Marriage not registered, so there is no legally verifiable date of marriage.
• Application filed after one year from the date of marriage.
• No Scheduled Caste spouse in an inter-caste claim.
• Caste certificate not in the prescribed form or issued by an authority other than the competent tehsildar or SDM.
• Residence not established in Uttarakhand.
• Bank account not joint, or account details that do not match the names on the marriage certificate.
• Duplicate claim, the same couple has already drawn the award, in Uttarakhand or in another state.

A note on the scheme's status

Uttarakhand's inter-faith marriage incentive drew national attention in November 2020, when news organisations reported that a departmental communication publicising the award had been withdrawn after political objections, even as the underlying 1976 rules and the Rs 50,000 award remained on the books. Couples planning to claim should therefore confirm the current position with their District Social Welfare Officer before relying on the incentive, and should ask specifically whether applications are being received and sanctioned in the current financial year.

Where to ask questions or complain

• Social Welfare Department toll-free helpline: 1800-180-4236, with mobile and WhatsApp support on 63952-21188.
• District Social Welfare Officer in your district headquarters, the sanctioning authority and the first point of appeal for a rejected file.
• Directorate of Social Welfare, Uttarakhand, IT Cell, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Colony, Adhoiwala, Dehradun 248001, email swditcell[at]gmail[dot]com.
• Chief Minister's helpline 1905 where a district office does not act.

The application is free. No official or middleman may charge a fee to process an inter-caste or inter-religious marriage award, and the award is always paid by bank transfer to the couple's joint account.