THE Indian Government is offering 50,000 rupees (£580) to higher-caste people who marry spouses from the lowest castes in its latest controversial effort to dismantle the ancient Hindu social hierarchy.

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment made the proposal yesterday amid a growing controversy over plans to expand quotas for lower-caste students at schools and universities.

The scheme is already under attack, with conservatives saying it will trigger social chaos and liberals arguing that few will accept the offer — and fewer will receive the funds.

The proposed bonus is a small fortune in a country where average annual income per capita is £280, and where official corruption is rampant.

But Meira Kumar, the Social Justice Minister, who is from a lower caste, defended the plan yesterday before meeting officials from the 28 Indian states to persuade them to approve it.

“Yes, I know this is not the only way to end the caste discrimination, but one has to start somewhere,” she said. “All proposals have initial hiccups. That does not mean that we give them up.” Ever since independence in 1947, Indian governments have tried in vain to break down the complex caste system, which divides society into hereditary hierarchical groups.

Most Indians’ educational, professional and marriage prospects are still determined at birth by their place in the hierarchy, which ranges from Brahmins at the top to Dalits, or Untouchables, at the bottom. Despite the recent economic boom, which has lifted millions of people out of poverty and spawned a burgeoning middle class, sociologists say that the caste system is becoming ever more entrenched.

A recent survey by the National Sample Survey Organisation showed that the number of people in the three lowest social strata had risen to 67.6 per cent of the Indian population of 1.1 billion.

Intercaste marriages have been permitted by law since 1955, and today some lower-caste women do marry men of a higher caste. Children traditionally assume the father’s caste status. But most Indians still marry within their caste, and those who do not often have to flee their homes to avoid ”honour killings” by relatives of the higher-caste spouse.

Last week three men in the town of Palghar, near Bombay, were sentenced to death for the murder of four people over an intercaste marriage.

Dilip Tiwari and two friends hacked to death his sister Sushma’s husband, two of his relatives and one of his neighbours in May 2004. The only motive was that Sushma, whose family was Brahmin, had defied her parents’ objections by marrying her neighbour Prabhu Nochil, whose lower-caste family ran a dairy.

The Supreme Court ruled in July that such “honour killings” were acts of barbarism and ordered police to protect intercaste couples. It described the caste system as “a curse on the nation”.

“It is dividing the nation at a time when we have to be united to face the challenges before the nation,” it said. “Intercaste marriages are in fact in the national interest as they will result in destroying the caste system.”

Several states already offer financial incentives for inter-caste marriages, ranging from 2,000 rupees in West Bengal to 50,000 rupees in Gujarat.

The new offer would be open to anyone from the top three social strata who married someone from the lowest three — Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes or Other Backward Classes. The Social Justice Ministry has offered to pay half of the 50,000-rupee bonus, with state governments providing the rest.

Local governments say that they cannot afford the bonus, while Hindu conservatives oppose any moves to dismantle the caste system. Liberal critics worry that the money will disappear into the pockets of corrupt local officials.

“While offering incentives seems to be a good idea, its practical utility is questionable,” Patricia Oberoi, Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Economic Growth, said. “One of the problems is that there are now financial advantages to being lower-caste.”

Few lower-caste people would take up the offer, she said, as they would forfeit preferential access to education under a controversial government affirmative-action scheme.

Publicly funded colleges already reserve 22.5 per cent of seats for Untouchables and the Government recently approved a plan to raise that to 50 per cent. It has also proposed reserving 27 per cent of seats at private colleges and government-funded medical, engineering and other professional colleges.

Last month police used teargas and water cannon on higher-caste students protesting against the plans in Delhi. In 1990 dozens of higher-caste students burnt themselves to death over plans to increase quotas in government jobs.

CLASS DIVISIONS

The word caste derives from the Portuguese casta, meaning breed, race or kind

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