By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
Hyderabad: The state government has decided to arrange for marriage of at least 5,000 poor Muslim girls in the state during the current fiscal year.
The government will carry out a mass marriage programme through the State Wakf Board. For the programme, the government has allocated Rs 5 crore in the 2008-2009 budget.
To discuss the programme, the government had a meeting recently of Muslim legislators, religious leaders and officials. The state government has constituted a committee to frame the modalities and regulations for organising this program.
The Muslim mass marriage programme is believed to have been framed on the pattern of the programme organized by the Tirumala Tirupati Devsthanam (TTD). The TTD has been organising mass weddings of thousands of Hindu couples every year. The government had been receiving representations that thousands of Muslim girls of poor families were unable to get married because of the problem of dowry.
The government will spend up to Rs 10,000 on each marriage giving clothes and other essential commodities. This way it is expected that 5,000 marriages will be organized utilising the budget amount of Rs 5 crore. The machinery of the State Waqf Board will be used for identifying and verifying the eligible poor and orphan girls. The government has indicated to increase the fund next year depending on the success of the programme this year.