Government plans to make shaadi sites safer

NEW DELHI: Faced with increasing complaints related to fake online profiles, stalking and harassment by “prospective grooms“, the government plans to bring in guidelines to rein in matrimonial websites. An interministerial panel has been set up to prepare a draft within a fortnight. Among the issues that the committee is expected to address include mandating identity proof that is verifiable and establishing a grievance redressal mechanism.

Women and child development secretary V Somasundaran chaired a meeting on Tuesday on the issue with representatives from the department of electronics and IT and the home ministry .“We have been receiving a lot of complaints about fraud being committed by men posing as prospective grooms.We would like these websites to put in place certain mechanisms that ensure that users can verify the identity given online before they commit to further communication,“ an official said.

Other suggestions in clude adding a cautionary note asking users to verify the information provided from secondary sources.

The inter-ministerial panel also includes three representatives from the industry .“We expect a first draft within the next 15 days. It will be reviewed and if it meets the concerns of all stakeholders, the IT ministry will notify it under the Information Technology Act,“ the official said.

WCD minister Maneka Gandhi is very keen to intro duce some checks on matrimonial websites. The ministry has suggested that websites ask prospective grooms to submit a reliable form of identification like an Aadhaar card or a PAN card.

In a meeting with matrimonial websites earlier, the ministry had sought to know the steps taken by them to ascertain the users' identity .“The ministry wanted to know if the websites were aware of what the men were doing on the websites. It was felt that due diligence was not being done and that people were able to get away with false identities,“ a source said. As of now, only a mobile number is required to register with these sites.