Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana – A Scheme for Girl Child which Window dresses and reinforce societal discrimination

Devika. J, Jayasankar. B

A 2019 National Crime Records Bureau reports domestic violence as the most prevalent crime against women. The 2020 NCRB report shows a 79% increase in the registered cases of domestic violence from 2019. Out of the total cases registered under the head ‘crimes against women’, 85% accounts for crimes under the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961. Another worrying statistic from the National Family Health Survey reports that "nearly 30% of women in India who were married at some point in their life experienced spousal violence (physical or sexual)". These statistics clearly do not paint the institution of marriage in a favourable light. Even when it is legally prohibited, dowry receipt and acceptance continues to be a rampant source of killing and harassment of women, with countless other ‘Uthras’ and ‘Vismayas’ as has been reported recently in Kerala, being added to the list of victims every day.

A look at various statistics and underlying social mechanisms is enough proof that marriage, though purported as the destiny of being woman, has hardly a few redeeming traits. The institution of marriage hosts the roots of a large part of gendered violence women face.

A typical characteristic of a marriage in India is the financial transfer made between families of the bride and groom. The more prevalent transfer is from the bride's family to the groom's, known as the practice of dowry. The study titled 'Money and Marriage: the practice of dowry and bride price in rural India’ by Brown University states the finding that the practice of dowry in the subcontinent has expanded overtime at both the country and the regional levels, but that its real value has declined over time.

Major motives that fuel dowry include, but are not limited to its characterisation as a pre-mortem bequest to daughters where they are legally or culturally handicapped and cannot exercise ownership over assets. Eventually though, dowry has evolved to be a mandatory demand to be realised from the bride's family and the groom exercises right over the dowry, even though it is bequeathed unto the bride. The practice has denigrated to such a state that dowry shapes the destiny of the bride's post marital life too; non payment of demanded dowry could result in physical and mental abuse, neglect and very often in killings, ominously sanctioned under the label 'bride burning', where the bride is killed in an 'accidental' fire.

Another way in which the marriage system is financially biased against women is through the custom of undertaking of the wedding expenses solely by the bride's family. The volume of wedding expenses has caused society to label the girl child as a financial burden, whose parents have to start saving up for the marriage, even as she is but a child. The various recorded reports reveal the financial burden of weddings on India's poorest families and the debt traps embraced by the poorer sections of the society. A recent report appeared aljazeera.com quotes Rani Devi, a small farm holder from Uttar Pradesh, who had recently married off her daughter- "As a widow, I requested the boy's family to settle for a simple ceremony at a local temple, but he refused. His family said it was a matter of social status for them that their only son had an elaborate wedding. We had to pay for all the groom's wedding arrangements"

The sad fact remains that such incidents are not anomalies, even when there exists definite legal provisions which prohibit offer and acceptance of dowry. The report aptly captures the ineffectiveness of the existing legal system thus- "between 2006 and 2016, only one in seven cases were convicted, of which 5 were later acquitted and one withdrawn".

It could be such a social fabric that prompted the government to design the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana. The stated objective of the scheme is to meet the education and marriage expense of the girl child. The Government website (transformingindia.mygov.in) describes the scheme as "a small saving deposit scheme of the Government of India meant exclusively for a girl child and is launched as a part of the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign. The scheme is meant to meet the education and marriage expenses of a girl child". It can be opened on behalf of a girl child by her parents or legal guardian until the child attains the age of 10 and the contribution to the scheme is valid up to 21 years from the date of opening. The account requires minimum deposit of Rs. 1000 per year and the maximum deposit can go up to Rs. 1,50,000 per year. The beneficiary is eligible to withdraw 50% of the amassed funds upon reaching 18 years of age for educational purposes, complying with specified conditions such as that they have passed 10th standard and with documentary proof of admission or fee slip. Interestingly, the scheme can be foreclosed on the reason of the marriage of the beneficiary, giving an affidavit to the effect that she is not less than eighteen years of age as on the date of closing of account, thereby unequivocally declaring the scheme as one for meeting the marriage expenses of a girl child.

The scheme started as a post office saving scheme, later extended to Nationalised banks. The scheme is attractive on its reasonably higher rate of interest and tax saving benefit for the contributing parent, resulting in wider acceptability for the scheme. As on January 2022, about 4.13 lakh subscriptions in Post offices alone in India has been created, with Uttar Pradesh leading with about 75000 subscriptions, clearly establishing the scheme's popularity among the parents of the girl child.

On the face of it, the scheme establishes itself as a progressive measure, ensuring some degree of financial inclusion and independence for women. However, a closer analysis of its twin objectives of the scheme though, gives the impression that the fund seeks to window dress problems of gendered violence and societal discrimination, reinforcing the notion of marriage as the end goal of being woman. The unfortunate portrayal of the main objective of the scheme as to create a fund to meet the marriage expense of girl child, manifesting and reinforcing the social evils rooted in the society and reflecting a message that marriage is the ultimate goal for a girl and that it is one liability that requires long term planning.

The scheme should ideally be established for the financial empowerment of the girl child, but it neutralises its narrative by passing a regressive message to the society and reinforcing the social evils relating to institution of marriage. It is in this context, the message of the scheme ideally requires a rethinking and reframing.

The Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana saves face by establishing itself as a fund for meeting the educational expenses of the child as well. But further examination makes evident that the various directives and regulations of the fund do not adequately finance this need. Funds are locked in till the beneficiary is 18. Even then, the upper limit of 50% withdrawal is not sufficient with rising educational costs, especially in the context of the fact that educational inflation in India is much higher than regular inflation. As a saving grace, enrolment numbers of women to higher education institutions are witnessing a rise and in this context, there is an urgent need to enable them to access quality education to tap into their empowerment.

This article takes issue not with the existence of a savings fund established exclusively for the girl child, but with the fact that a progressive measure endorsed by the government should ideally shatter biases but ends up reinforcing them here. The government of a progressive State with a commitment to gender equality shouldn't ideally endorse the message that only the marriage of a girl child is something that needs extensive and long drawn planning and saving. The intent of the scheme would have reflected better in our social reality had it endorsed financial inclusion and empowerment of the girl child and not merely reinstated the deep rooted patriarchal notions prevalent in the society. This calls for a rethinking of the messaging of our empowerment schemes and provides the strength to shake off the stronghold of patriarchy.