The Maharashtra government has formed a 12-member panel named “Intercaste/ Interfaith marriage-family coordination committee (state level)”, headed by the Women and Child Development Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha in order to study and gather detailed information in connection with Intercast/Interfaith marriages.

The committee will gather detailed information about couples in such marriages, and the maternal families of the women involved if they are estranged, according to the Women and Child Development Department’s resolution issued on December 13.

The committee will also provide a platform for the women and their families to access counselling and communication in a bid to resolve issues, as per the resolution.

The committee has been tasked with studying policies at the Central and state levels, welfare schemes, and laws regarding the issue — and suggesting changes for improvement and finding solutions.

The committee will review work on seven parameters, mainly to collect information on registered and unregistered intercaste and interfaith marriages; on such marriages that have taken place in religious places of worship; and on those that have taken place after elopement [of the couple].

The committee will have 12 other members who will be drawn from government and non-government sectors. Once its task is achieved, the committee will be dissolved, the resolution stated.