South Asian Business news and information

The Indian government has taken a new decision to encourage inter-caste marriage. From now on, the government would give $1000 to those who would marry a person from lower caste. This idea was given by an Indian federal minister on Thursday. Meira Kumar, social justice minister, who came from a lower caste, forwarded this idea in a meeting with the officials of 28 states. The proposal came under heavy attack from the conservative Hindus. They said that it would break down the social system and would create lots of problems. Meira Kumar said that this is not a very ideal way to eradicate the caste system but someone had to start from somewhere. She added that all such kinds of proposals had faced some obstacles at initial stage.

The number of lower caste people is high. According to a recent survey, the number of people belonging to three lower social castes has risen significantly. Still, these people face discrimination in every stage of their lives. Steps like these are very much necessary to include these people into the social, political, economical mainstreams of the country.