No Casual Hook Ups, Govt. Will Now Regulate Matrimony Sites To Ensure Users Are Only There For Marriage

A new set guidelines are being planned by the Indian Government to make sure that matrimonial websites are expressly used for matrimony and not for hook ups or dating. An advisory by the government will ask matrimony websites to use legal identity and address proofs to verify their users. “We have approved the standards to check cheating on such websites,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Communications & Information Technology. According to Mashable, in addition to making sure the user information is correct, these new rules require that the websites “confirm the user’s intent to enter in to matrimonial alliance”.

The guidelines were added in response to Minister of Women & Child Development, Maneka Gandhi’s pursuit of the matter. Among the list, websites were also specifically asked to specify whether they are dating or matrimonial sites, and to ensure that users did not post objectionable material. Users are also encouraged to report any ‘fraudulent activity.’ It will also store the IP address of the user for 1 year from the point where an account is created. According to the New York Times, India’s marriage market includes 1,500 matrimonial sites with an estimated market of INR 15 billion by 2017.