Marrying a purohit fetches Rs 1 lakh in Andhra Pradesh

Visakhapatnam: Brahmin boys who chose to turn purohits and Veda pandits seem to have landed in a tricky situation. In the age of hi-tech IT and software jobs that offer “wealthy” pay cheques, they are finding it difficult to find a girl willing to marry them.

A scheme which aims to overcome the problem and help these men has been floated as the Andhra Pradesh Brahmin Welfare Corporation (ABC) that is offering Rs 1 lakh to the girl willing to marry a purohit or pujari or a Veda pandit. It is estimated that there are around 30,000 Brahm-ins in the state who are engaged in Pourahityam.

The scheme, ‘Chandrasekhara scheme for sanskaras – wedding,’ is named after the former senior seer of Kanchi Kamakoti Peethadipathi Paramacharya Swamy Chandraskharendra Sara-swathy who strived to uphold and promote the 16 brahmanic sanskaras including Upanayanam and marriage.

Under this scheme, ABC will deposit Rs 1 lakh in the joint names of the Brahmin bride and the bridegroom whose livelihood comes from Pourohityam or Veda Prayanam or Archaka-thvam, on their wedding. The objective of the scheme itself is ‘To encourage Brahmin girls to marry purohits, Veda pandits or Archakas.

“Though purohit or archakas are upholding the Hindu culture, traditions, and customs it had become very difficult to find a girl for marriage as their earnings are very meagre. Any girl irrespective of caste, community, and religion obviously looks for a boy with a good job and secured, steady income. The situation is worse in our caste for purohits or archakas. To encourage girls to marry them, this scheme has been introduced,” ABC Vizag district coordinator, Vasanthavada Purusho-tamma Raju, told this newspaper.

The Brahmin bride must apply for this scheme within 90 days of the wedding date. Shortlisting and finalisation of applicants will be done by a State Level Selection Committee (SLSC) of ABC. An ABC representative will visit the newly-weds to verify and confirm the details.

ABC had earlier launched various schemes for poor Brahmin students. One such scheme for the poor Brahmins was to meet funeral expenses. The ABC had introduced Garuda Scheme’ under which government would provide financial assistance of Rs 10,000 to meet the funeral expenses.

When the Brahmin Corporation was launched it was seen as an attempt by TD government trying to replicate Mayawati’s social engineering formula where she wooed upper castes especially Brah-mins equally along with the other backward and marginal classes in UP when she was the CM.