On the cash incentive for a caste grassroot initiative

September 14th, 2006, the following headline from the news aggregators jumped at me.
Indian Government Offers Cash Incentive For Inter-Caste Marriages
I scoured the goto news links for more on the story. I found no op-eds on the topic. I have searched every day since in vain. Some competing headlines of the week : the coup in Thailand, the not-so-buoyant US economy, the speculations on a safe Atlantis landing, the sparing in the UN floor, the e-coli outbreak, Zune for the holidays etc. Perhaps, a dose of social conscience isn't in vogue these days. What do you make of caste anyway?  It nearly occupies the same tier as serfdom,slavery in most people's working memory until they dwell on it and the currency of it dawns. It then gets reclassified alongside race. Deservedly so.  Moreover, if the news doesn't affect my wallet, I could care less. Value for money is my top value. I bet my mom thought the cash incentive was a better use of the coffers. But is it? Is it really?

I did catch the NewYork Times story on the booming Indian economy pushing up Indian art prices. One of the pieces, Bapu on the shutter- it is actually titled “Mirage” by the painter, Atul Dodiya. Wonder what Bapu would make of this cash incentive. Can a grassroots change be effected with a cash incentive? I could only picture would-be mothers-in-law coercing sons, “Well, atleast she's worth that Rs.xxx”. It is not a gallant attempt at breaking a vicious cycle with a few enticing rupees. It is not even a novel economic scheme. It puts the women in these marriages at risk. Have we run out of imagination in the land of panchayats?

Shouldn't education be the first resort? How many lessons in Indian high schools address the caste system as it exists in earnest? What about the emergent class system? The socio-economic caste system that is present in all societies. What underlies this new scheme I wonder? What does it legitimize in reality? [aside:I yearn for tehelka.]  I and a number of my friends are in inter-religious, inter-caste marriages. But to initiate it on the premise of a cash incentive? Education, knowledge is the only way to arrive at truth. The Indian social justice minister should know better.