‘Safe homes’ in Kerala for inter-faith, caste couples

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala has unveiled a unique initiative of opening “safe homes” for newly-wed intercaste and interfaith couples in a bid to encourage such marriages.

Minister for health and social welfare K K Shailaja told the state assembly on Thursday that preliminary steps to open such “safe homes” across all 14 districts in

Kerala have started, where such couples can stay for up to one year after their wedding.

Kerala decided to set up these “safe homes” in light of recent incidents of social ostracism and attacks on such couples.

“The government will set up ‘safe homes’ with the support of voluntary organisations. Such couples belonging to the general category and having an annual income of less ~1 lakh will get a one-time financial assistance of ~30,000 for self-employment. If they are in government service, priority will be given during transfers and postings. If one of them belongs to the scheduled caste community, they will get a one-time assistance of ~75,000,” the minister said.

The interfaith couples also face persecution from religious outfits amid growing complaints of “love jihad”, a phrase used by a section of Hindu fundamentalist groups to refer to an alleged attempts by Muslim men to offer matrimony to Hindu women with an aim of converting them to Islam. The Syro-Malabar Church, the second-largest Eastern Catholic Church in the world, has also alleged such attempts as a major threat in Kerala, but Union minister of state for home G Kishan Reddy told Parliament earlier this week that “no such cases have come to light and they are not defined in law”.

Violence over intercaste and interfaith marriages are common in Kerala. In 2018, a 23-year-old Dalit Christian youth was abducted and killed by relatives of his upper caste wife in Kottayam district.