State needn’t medde with matrimonial websites
Well-intentioned as it may be, the Government's decision to regulate matrimonial websites so as to shield genuine match-seekers from fraudsters, raises some important questions: Does this make the Government look somewhat like a big brother or, perhaps, like protective parentIJ Does it not go against the spirit of minimum Government, maximum governanceIJ And, will the new regulations, as and when they are notified, even serve their purpose of keeping fraudsters away from the naïve and the vulnerableIJ Match-seekers will now have to upload original documents for identification while the company will have to save IP address and user access logs for a year, and also make a declaration that the site is being used solely for matrimonial alliances, not for dating.
Slice it whichever way you may, these can be construed as somewhat intrusive. For example, many match-seekers may not be comfortable sharing sensitive information such as their PAN card details on a public forum. Who will ensure that this information will be secure and not misused either by the company or the Government, especially given the many weaknesses in our online privacy structuresIJ Also, who will enforce compliance and weed out fake documentsIJ This leads us to the broader question: Why is the Government even getting into match-makingIJ For thousands of years, match-seekers and their friends and families have done the job of vetting suitors (with varied degrees of success) — and there is really is no reason for the Government to get involved now.
As for cases of false representation, these existed even before online matrimonial sites came into existence, and there are still ways and means to verify potential matches. For example, if income is a deal-breaker, one can personally ask for IT returns, instead of the Government mandating that such information be put up online for public consumption. Similarly, to verify if one’s potential spouse is a married individual posing as a single, public records can be accessed and facts verified offline, instead of getting everyone to put up marriage documents online. Remember, matrimonial websites are only the first step in the marriage process, and do not relieve the individual of all personal responsibility towards his or her marriage.
In fact, to even expect that the state should intervene in these matters is ludicrous: The new rules, for instance, seek to draw an iron curtain between matrimonial sites and dating sites. Yet, what happens when a couple meet on a matrimonial site, date each other, and then decide not to get marriedIJ Instead of getting into all this silliness, the Government will be well-advised to focus on the key area of law enforcement (prosecuting cases of polygamy and false representation online, for example) while also undertaking a mass awareness campaign on the pitfalls of not just online matchmaking but any online interaction or activity, for that matter.