Inter-caste marriage is a union of two persons from different castes. For example, if a member of the Brahmin group marries a member of the Scheduled Caste, the marriage is referred to be an inter-caste marriage.

 Related Laws

• According to the Special Marriage Act of 1954, persons of any faith or caste can marry. This legislation applies to all Indian nationals, whether they dwell in India or abroad.
• The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006 states that the minimum legal age for marriage for girls is 18 years old and 21 years old for guys.
• According to Article 21 of the Indian constitution, which discusses the Right To Life and Personal Liberty, the Right To Marry is a Fundamental Right.

How Casteism causes issues

• Untouchability is perpetuated through casteism.
• An impediment to achieving social equality and justice.
• Social order, stability, peace, and harmony are all under threat.
• The prevalence of casteism demonstrates that the people are traditional, conservative, and orthodox in their views.
• Tensions between distinct groups impede national development and the emergence of nationalism.
• Political discord
• Caste politics and rising reservations demands

How inter caste marriages is a solution

• The Supreme Court made the following key observations:
• Once two mature persons choose to marry, the agreement of the family or community is not required. Their approval must take precedence.
• Educated children are paving the road forward by marrying beyond their caste. It will help to alleviate caste and communal conflicts in India. This might be the way ahead in terms of reducing caste and communal conflicts.
• The court also stressed the importance of particular standards and a training programme for police officers. It will prepare them to deal with inter-caste marriages.
• The court cited B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste, in which he stated, “I am convinced that the actual cure is intermarry.” The fusion of blood alone may create the feeling of being kith and kin, and unless this feeling of kinship, of being kindred, becomes paramount, the separatist feeling – the feeling of being aliens — established by caste will not vanish”

Challenges

• Inter-caste or inter-religious marriages can render a person an outcast in his or her family and community. He may even be prevented from inheriting from his relatives. Even when families are not vehemently opposed to inter-caste marriage, there is a widespread view that it is more comfortable to settle down with someone with whom they are socially and culturally familiar.
• The discovery that many educated individuals believe that laws against inter-caste marriage should be enacted raises major concerns about our educational system and whether it is doing enough to decrease caste and religious discrimination.
• It is striking that many young people graduating from prestigious technical and medical schools still rely on their parents to pick their marriages.

Way forward

• The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment provides 500 monetary prizes to inter-caste spouses each year. Because of its limited scale, this programme is more of a symbolic gesture than a real incentive, but it is still a nice concept.
• The government should do a lot more to encourage inter-group marriage and protect individuals who want it. In actuality, rather than implementing the rules, authorities in the courts and the police frequently enforce dividing social norms. Couples attempting to marry across caste or religious lines may be discouraged or intimidated.
• Lack of government assistance in the face of family rejection may be one of the reasons why, according to the India Human Development Survey, barely 5% of marriages are inter-caste.
• To remove untouchability, everyone, from a government official to a teacher to a young mother, must make an effort. Everyone must acknowledge that untouchability is a pervasive issue, not only in rural India but also in metropolitan India.
• A study of primary school pupils in the United States discovered that white students who read about both the accomplishments of black Americans and the prejudice they encountered subsequently had fewer biassed views toward blacks than white children who just read about accomplishments.
• Rather than merely denying the reality of untouchability, it is essential for parents, schools, and even the government to begin talking to children about putting a stop to these practises as soon as possible.

How to structure

1. Give an intro about caste based conflicts in India and general data
2. Explain about the menace of caste conflicts
3. Analyse how inter-caste marriages is a solution for this
4. Mention challenges faced and suggest way forward
5. Conclude

Reference:

1. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-symbolism-of-inter-caste-marriages-7758826