On June 19, 27-year-old Soundarya, a resident of Bansilalpet in Hyderabad died by suicide, also taking the lives of her 18-month-old twins, Nitya and Nidarsh. Soundarya, who had completed her education till class 12, had been married for less than three years. In this period, she had grown deeply distressed, having allegedly suffered incessant dowry harassment and physical abuse from her husband Gaddam Ganesh and his mother. Other than the numerous articles demanded as part of the dowry, Ganesh had one more specific demand — he wanted Soundarya’s parents to transfer to him the amount they had received under the Telangana government’s Kalyana Lakshmi Scheme. The Kalyana Lakshmi scheme is a one-time money transfer scheme of the Telangana government, aimed at lending financial assistance to any family whose annual income does not exceed Rs 2 lakh.
The Kalyana Lakshmi scheme was introduced by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on October 2, 2014, initially promising beneficiaries a sum of Rs 75,116. In March 2018, KCR increased the amount to Rs 1,00,116. The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government has claimed on multiple occasions that the scheme is designed to prevent misuse, as the amount is deposited into the bride’s mother’s account.
Time and again, the BRS government has claimed that the Kalyana Lakshmi scheme has reduced financial pressure on poor families, and that it has also helped reduce child marriages considerably. Though that may be the case, ironically, the same scheme is also being misused to harass women’s families for dowry.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for 2021, dowry deaths in India had increased by 25% compared to the previous year. While Uttar Pradesh officially recorded the highest number of deaths in 2021, Telangana recorded the highest cases of dowry-related deaths (175) among the south Indian states. While the Kalyana Lakshmi scheme was announced by the BRS government with the stated intent of tackling child marriage and alleviating poverty, especially among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the social reality of the pressure to pay dowry means that often, the incentive provided under the scheme ends up on the list of dowry demands.
Soundarya’s mother Durgamma explained the dowry demands the family was pressurised to meet while organising her daughter’s marriage. “We had already given Ganesh’s family Rs 2 lakh, four tolas of gold, and a plot in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district,” she said. Additionally, Ganesh demanded the entire amount received through the Kalyana Lakshmi scheme to also be transferred to his account. And Soundarya wasn’t the only one to face such demands.
Soundarya’s cousin Raju said that his family too gave a share of the Kalyana Lakshmi scheme amount to the groom’s family during his sister Shreelatha’s wedding (name changed). “We had already given him Rs 7 lakh in dowry. But the minute the scheme money came through, he asked for that too, and we gave him a part of it (Rs 50,000) as well,” Raju said. Just like Soundarya’s husband Ganesh, Raju alleged that Shreelatha’s husband too would frequently body shame her, and harass her for more dowry. Raju told TNM that his brother-in-law was physically abusive and would hit Sreelatha repeatedly.
“After three years of abuse, he finally asked for a divorce. He said he didn’t want to live with my sister anymore. The divorce is going to be finalised soon, and we wish we had never given him any dowry to begin with,” said Raju.
Variations of Soundarya and Shreelatha’s stories seem to have happened with several women across the state. Devi, an activist, said that the practice of giving up the amount received under the scheme to the groom is prevalent across Telangana. “The operational method of Kalyana Lakshmi works on a compromise basis. In milder cases, the groom or his mother asks for 50% of the scheme money. Giving up at least half the money happens in several cases,” she said.
Devi also said that contrary to the government’s aim of preventing child marriages, the scheme also tends to be misused to marry off minor daughters with falsified government documents. “To avail benefits from the scheme and to do away with an assumed responsibility, parents tamper with the age of their daughters on Aadhaar cards and make them seem older than they are,” she said.
Devi mentioned the case of a single mother from Jangaon district who got her 15-year-old daughter married. “In order to support her elder son’s education, she married off her daughter and gave up half of the scheme’s money to her daughter’s in-laws as dowry. All this was done so that she could get her daughter and son ‘settled’,” Devi added.
Even in cases where no dowry harassment was reported, the scheme has been used to purchase ‘gifts’ for the groom and not on wedding expenses. Speaking to TNM, Sarala*, a beneficiary from the Madiga (Scheduled Caste) community residing in Kamareddy district, said that the scheme money was used to buy a bike which cost nearly Rs 1,00,000 as a “gift” for the groom.
When asked how the scheme was viewed by her and her family, Sarala remarked, “Initially we thought it was helpful as it aided families in need of money, but now, we wish the government was more focused on ensuring all of us are employed.”
Despite state Finance Minister Harish Rao and several other BRS leaders remarking that the scheme has championed women’s causes, some of the beneficiaries of the scheme have a different story to narrate.
One problem that both Raju and Durgamma pointed out was how the paperwork for the scheme necessitated the involvement of the groom and thus, tended to make him feel like he had a claim on the amount. To avail the scheme, the bride’s family must provide a work ID and Aadhaar details of the groom. “The minute they become part of the process, they think they are entitled to the money,” said Raju.
Several documents including the couple’s marriage registration certificate (if applying after marriage), both their Aadhaar cards, Secondary School Certificate (SSC) or other documents for age proof, caste certificates, income and residence proof, the bride’s mother’s bank passbook, the bride’s passport size photo, and the invitation card for the wedding card are required to apply for the scheme. If the couple is applying after their wedding, photos from the ceremony are also required. These documents have to be submitted along with the Kalyana Lakshmi forms, and a letter from the gram panchayat or church or mosque or any other competent authority/institution which has performed the marriage.
Soundarya’s family feels that involving the groom in the paperwork made him brazen in demanding the government scheme amount and eventually, even a double-bedroom house sanctioned to them under a different government scheme. However, the misuse of the Kalyana Lakshmi grant to pay dowry is not the only criticism that the BRS government has chosen to overlook in the nine years since it launched the scheme.
In a September 2020 session of the Telangana Assembly, BRS MLA from Medak Padma Devender Reddy herself raised a few concerns about the scheme. While appreciating the government for ensuring that Kalyani Lakshmi cheques were disbursed even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the MLA pointed out that making birth certificates compulsory was a major hindrance for poor families who may not have the document ready.
However, the second concern voiced by the MLA points to a bigger problem inherent to the scheme’s design, as it shows how the state views marriage through the lens of familial consent and societal sanction. “When young women get married across caste lines, they cannot avail of the scheme independently, as the bride’s mother alone can access the scheme amount,” Padma had pointed out in the Assembly.
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Like the rest of India, in Telangana too, inter-caste couples regularly face violence from their families and even social boycott in some cases. In such a context, making parental consent mandatory for an adult woman to access the funds granted for her wedding is a deeply concerning feature of the scheme. Dalit poet and activist Joopaka Subhadra argued that the scheme is formulated in a way that suppresses inter-caste marriages, as it requires women to comply with family-sanctioned relationships, which are usually endogamous unions. She also questioned the absence of any mechanism to ensure that the wedding is taking place with the bride’s active consent.
“It isn’t impressive to introduce a scheme alone. Shouldn’t the government enquire if the girl is interested in the marriage? If she likes the groom or not? If she is educated and capable of supporting herself? This scheme lacks social responsibility. At this point, we should also question the intent of the government,” Subhadra said.
While these criticisms hold true for the Kalyana Lakshmi scheme, there is a separate incentive for inter-caste couples in which each couple is granted Rs 2.5 lakh from the Scheduled Castes Development Department in Telangana. This is a centrally sponsored scheme and as such, the amount given to the couple is split equally between the state and Union governments. The amount was increased from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh in October 2019.
While the Kalyana Lakshmi scheme was initially announced for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minorities, it was later expanded to Backward Classes and Economically Backward Classes as well. However, the low annual income limit of Rs 2 lakh means that many beneficiaries are from marginalised communities.
Subadhra said that by offering a separate incentive for brides alone, the government seems to suggest that poor women from marginalised communities must get married, stay at home and raise children, rather than providing the same women with a push for their education, employment or other pursuits for their social and economic progress. “Why isn’t there a push from the government to help the same women join the workforce after their wedding? Why is it Kalyana Lakshmi? Why not Chaduvula (Education) Lakshmi or Udyogala (Employment) Lakshmi?” Subhadra questioned.
Three years after the scheme was launched, the state government reviewed it in a 2017 Citizen Feedback Survey Report of Kalyana Lakshmi, published with support from UNICEF Hyderabad and the Centre for Good Governance. The report looked at beneficiaries of the scheme (from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) across the state and found that nearly 40% of the brides were unlettered. As per the 2011 Census, 55.3% of SC and ST women in Telangana were unlettered, which made it difficult for them to be financially independent.
The report found that more than a quarter (26%) of the beneficiaries used the scheme’s assistance to purchase ornaments (a kind of asset formation), while 2% of them used the amount to set up a fixed deposit in the bride’s name. Surprisingly, the government report itself found that 16% of the beneficiaries openly admitted to having used the amount to buy ‘gifts’ for the groom — a blatant form of dowry.
Independent journalist and activist Sajaya remarked that the reason that the dowry problem persists even with a government scheme is that marriage-related financial transactions take place in unwritten, often roundabout ways. “As such, I would find it hard to directly blame the government. But since 2014 (when the scheme was launched), we have insisted that it would be better to focus on women’s education up to their graduation at the very least, to effectively counter the social dynamics women find themselves in,” she said.
Devi said that a major issue with the scheme is that it doesn’t provide an exit route for women if the marriage turns bad, owing to a lack of education or job opportunities. “Contacting child helplines or the welfare committees (in the case of child marriages) or NGOs isn’t a long-term solution, as the state government doesn’t offer an alternative to marriage,” Devi said.
A 2017 study conducted by the NGO M Venkatarangaiah Foundation in Hyderabad found that nearly all of the 600 girls they interviewed were unhappy with the Kalyana Lakshmi scheme, and asked for more funds to be allocated for their education. “Soft schemes like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao and Kalyana Lakshmi are just tokenism projects,” Prof Shanta Sinha, former Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) who co-authored the study, had said.
Yet, the focus on poor women’s wedding ceremonies alone has persisted. On February 4, 2023, Congress MLA T Jayaparakash Reddy (Jagga Reddy) demanded that the BRS government increase the Kalyana Lakshmi amount from Rs 1,00,116 lakh to Rs 2,00,116 lakh so that brides can afford a ‘gold mangalsutra’. Despite the scheme being well-received across Telangana, it is also riddled with its fair share of issues, which are unlikely to be resolved with a mere increase in the grant amount.
Since the scheme is here to stay, activists TNM spoke to have argued that the government should work on promoting female education and employment while clamping down on dowry demands.