Maharashtra: Govt to keep track of inter-faith, inter-caste couples in state

The Maharashtra government has set up a committee to gather information about the inter-caste or inter-faith married couples and the maternal families of the women involved if they are estranged.

The Government Resolution (GR) issued on Tuesday by the state's Women and Child Development Department said the "intercaste/interfaith marriage-family coordination committee (state level)" will be headed by state Women and Child Development Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha.

The committee will monitor district-level initiatives for women in such marriages who may be estranged from their families, so that assistance can be provided if necessary, it said. The committee will be a platform for women and their families to avail counselling and resolve issues, the Government Resolution said. The panel will have 13 members from government and non-government fields to study policies of the state and Central government regarding welfare schemes and laws related to the matter, it added.

Also read: Shraddha Walkar murder case: Inquiry ordered against Tulinj, Manikpur police

The committee will hold regular meetings with district officials and collect information of registered and unregistered inter-faith and inter-caste marriages; on such marriages that took place in places of worship and marriages took place after elopement.

Last month, Lodha had asked the Maharashtra State Commission for Women to set up a special squad to identify women who married without family support and are estranged from them. This decision was taken in view of the Shraddha Walkar murder case.

Walkar was murdered allegedly by her live-in partner Aftab Poonawala in Delhi in May this year. Poonawala allegedly strangled Shraddha and cut her body into multiple pieces, which he kept in a fridge for almost three weeks at his Delhi, flat before dumping them across the city over several days.

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