Ranchi, Jan. 30: Sikh girls looking to marry outside the community better make arrangements for a suitable venue.

For, the local gurdwara where Sikh marriages are usually solemnised will no longer be open for them.

In a state that promotes inter-caste marriages, the local gurdwara committee will soon bring out a circular making its stand clear.

“We are definitely going to ban inter-caste marriages and would not allow such girls to marry in the gurdwara,” said an official of the Gurdwara Sikh Prabandhak Committee,which had earlier banned Sikh women from dancing at weddings.

Of late, there have been several instances of Sikh girls marrying outside the community.

“Hence, we collectively took the decision to stop this, especially among the young generation who are studying outside the city and are well-qualified,” the official rued.

Paramjeet Singh, the general secretary of Gurdwara Shree Guru Singh Sabha (Main Road), said the final draft of the circular was not yet ready, but “we are coming out with it very soon”.

The move is unlikely to go down well with Sikh girls.

A second year student of Ranchi Women's College, Jaswinder Singh (name changed), wondered what the logic behind the decision was since the state government promoted inter-caste marriages.

“It’s as if our community is moving backwards when inter-caste marriages have become quite prevalent,” Singh said.

“We Sikh girls are facing a lot problems as earlier dancing at weddings were banned.”

The state government has a lucrative scheme to promote inter-caste marriages. A one-time “gift”of Rs 25,000 is given to couples who take this step.

Assistant officer in the district welfare office James Balmuchu said that they do get cases of inter-caste marriages between a Sikh girl and a Hindu boy. “But the scheme is applicable only when a Sikh girl marries an ST/SC/OBC. But then, there are only one or two such cases in a year. In all, we get around 30-35 inter-caste marriage applications a year,” Balmuchu said.

The officer, however, agreed that in the last one year he had spotted a trend of Sikh girls marrying outside community. “It is evident from the number of enquiries we get regarding the scheme from such couples who usually opt for a registered marriage,” Balmuchu added.