Karnataka Govt To Provide Marriage Assistance To Poor Brahmin Girls, Scholarship To Brahmin Students

Two initiatives aimed to benefit Brahmin brides will be launched by the Karnataka State Brahmin Development Board, Deccan Herald reports.

The schemes are named ‘Arundhati’ and ‘Maitreyi’ respectively. The board will provide Rs 25,000 to newly-wedded Brahmin women as per ‘Arundhati’. Similarly, brides marrying priests (Archakas and Purohits) will be assured a bond of Rs 3 lakh under the ‘Maitreyi’ programme.

Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa is expected to launch these projects. During the initial pilot project stage, 500 brides from poor backgrounds will initially avail the benefit of Arundhati scheme and the Maitreyi scheme will be extended to 25 brides.

H S Sachidananda Murthy, Chairman of the state’s Brahmin Development Board, told Deccan Herald, “It is for people from economically weaker sections of the society. There will be certain conditions for the scheme. In case of Maitreyi, the bride should be from Brahmin community and it should be her first marriage. The couple should agree to be married for a certain point of time.”

The Board is taking several other measures for the well-being of people belonging to the Brahmin community. 4,000 participants aged between 8-80 years will be given Rs 500 as they will be trained in sandhya vandana and pooja rituals. Furthermore, Murthy claimed that Rs 14 crore will be spent to provide scholarships to 5,800 students from the social group.