In Kerala, no replacement of dowry prohibition officers despite three years after the post became defunct

The post of regional dowry prohibition officers is but to be successfully changed three years after it became defunct following the bifurcation of the Social Justice Department of Kerala.

The three regional dowry prohibition officers ceased to exist after the Department of Women and Child Development was carved out of the Social Justice Department.

The Law Department continues to be engaged on an modification to the State Dowry Prohibition Rules, 2004, to inform the girl safety officer and the district girl and little one improvement officer as inquiry officer and dowry prohibition officers respectively. Though a chief dowry prohibition officer capabilities at the State degree in the Department of Women and Child Development, it’s of little assist with out district-level officers to coordinate the actions at the grass-roots degree.

‘Toothless’ post

A senior official with the division noticed that the post of regional dowry prohibition officer was toothless even when it existed, a truth corroborated by a retired official who served in that capability.

“The Central Dowry Prohibition Rules, 1985, called for the man and woman to keep a signed list of all gifts exchanged at the time of marriage. However, this didn’t happen in practice as insisting on such a list itself would have caused a discord at the very outset making the enforcement redundant. Also, the prohibition officers were required to keep an eye on lavish marriages, track the source of income and register cases, which again was not practical,” mentioned Rajan. L, a retired official who had served as a regional prohibition officer for three years.

During his service, he had proposed to the Social Justice Department director to repair a ceiling on alternate of items throughout the marriage and taxing something past it. “Making mandatory the submission of the list of gifts at the time of registration of marriage with local bodies will enable the government to check the evil practice to a great extent,” Mr. Rajan mentioned.

Hardly any scope

Though the district ladies safety officers, who have been initially supposed to exchange dowry prohibition officers, proceed to intervene on behalf of victims of home violence and lengthen authorized help, there may be hardly any scope for them to behave in reference to dowry prohibition as of now.

A lady safety officer admitted that this was despite the incontrovertible fact that dowry issue was at the centre of a number of home violence circumstances.