Srinagar, Oct 12: Three months after her wedding, Haleema (name changed) is still waiting for financial assistance under Jammu and Kashmir’s Marriage Assistance Scheme, leaving her family struggling to repay the money borrowed to meet her marriage expenses.
Her father is dead, her mother is a homemaker, and her brother, a daily-wage labourer, is the family’s only earning member. With no fixed monthly income, the household has been finding it difficult to repay the debt incurred for the wedding.
Speaking to Rising Kashmir on condition of anonymity, Haleema’s brother said the family had borrowed money to arrange the marriage, expecting government assistance to ease the financial burden. Three months later, the assistance remains awaited, he said.
The family’s application date and the stage at which it is currently pending could not be established from the information available.
Haleema’s case comes against the backdrop of government records showing that marriage assistance was sanctioned after the weddings in at least two cases examined by Rising Kashmir. Separate Assembly replies have also documented a substantial number of sanctioned beneficiaries awaiting payment during the 2025-26 financial year.
An examination of sanction records available on the Jammu and Kashmir government’s JanSugam portal shows that a beneficiary from Shopian district was married on December 27, 2024, while financial assistance of Rs 50,000 was sanctioned on June 16, 2025.
The gap between the marriage and the sanction was 171 days.
Another sanction letter records that a beneficiary from Kulgam district was married on April 12, 2025, while assistance of Rs 50,000 was sanctioned on June 25, 2025, 74 days after the marriage.
Government Order No. 49-JK(SWD) of 2022, issued on March 22, 2022, requires eligible applicants to apply at least one month before their proposed marriage dates. It also directs Deputy Commissioners to forward verified applications every fortnight to facilitate the release of assistance before marriage.
The government’s JanSugam service portal separately prescribes a delivery period of 30 working days, excluding government holidays.
The scheme provides one-time financial assistance to eligible women belonging to economically weaker families covered under Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Household (PHH) categories, subject to the prescribed conditions.
While the guidelines envisage advance assistance, the two sanction records reviewed by this newspaper show that approval came after the marriages. The available documents do not establish whether the delay occurred during application processing, verification, sanction or the subsequent payment process.
The issue of pending payments was also raised in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly earlier this year.
In a written reply on February 3, 2026, the government informed the House that 31,524 beneficiaries had received Rs 163.93 crore under the Marriage Assistance Scheme during 2025-26. Another 12,777 beneficiaries had been sanctioned assistance but were awaiting payment.
The government further disclosed that bills amounting to Rs 70.08 crore had been pending at the treasury since October 2025.
The Social Welfare Department maintained that there was no undue delay on its part, attributing the outstanding payments to treasury processing.
An analysis of the figures shows that the 12,777 beneficiaries awaiting payment accounted for approximately 28.8 per cent of the 44,301 beneficiaries reported as either paid or sanctioned at the time.
In another written reply on February 20, the government reported an amount of Rs 234 crore against 44,301 beneficiaries during 2025-26. The reply included Rs 70.08 crore in bills awaiting treasury clearance, accounting for nearly 30 per cent of the reported amount.
The figures indicate that the amount reported under the scheme included assistance that had been sanctioned but had not completed the payment process.
However, the two replies reflect the position reported in February and do not establish how many of the pending payments have since been released.
The government also reported that 26,000 beneficiaries were covered in each of the financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25, with Rs 130 crore recorded annually under the scheme.
District-wise figures for 2025-26 included 4,308 beneficiaries in Anantnag, 4,255 in Budgam, 3,855 in Baramulla, 3,426 in Kupwara and 2,504 in Srinagar.
The Assembly replies did not provide a breakdown of how many beneficiaries received assistance before their weddings, how many were paid afterwards, or how many remained unpaid after their marriage dates.
Rising Kashmir attempted to contact the Director, Social Welfare Department, for a response to the findings, but the calls went unanswered.
For Haleema’s family, the wait has meant continued uncertainty over how to repay the money borrowed for her wedding. Her brother’s irregular earnings remain the household’s principal source of income, while the assistance they had expected has yet to arrive.
The government’s guidelines envisage applications and verification procedures intended to facilitate assistance before marriage. The post-marriage sanctions documented by Rising Kashmir, alongside the payment pendency reported in the Assembly, raise questions about whether eligible beneficiaries are receiving financial support within the intended timeframe.
The extent of the current backlog, the reasons for the delays in the two documented cases and the status of Haleema’s application remain to be established.
