New Delhi, Dec. 28: All matrimonial websites will soon have to screen applicants, including a psychological assessment to test how serious they are, government sources said today after an inter-ministerial panel submitted a set of guidelines aimed at curbing fraud and weeding out fake profiles.

This is the first time that the government has come up with such a drive involving the online matchmaking market, which is estimated to be worth around Rs 400 crore but is currently unregulated.

Officials hinted that the guidelines, likely to be notified next month, would be similar to those framed in 2011 to regulate cyber cafes that are prohibited from giving access to users without proof of identity.

According to the sources, the inter-ministerial committee submitted the guidelines today to the women and child development ministry, which had formed the panel with officials from the ministry and two other departments - information technology and home affairs.

The panel, the sources said, felt that it was imperative that users of such sites not only submit proof of identity but also proof of intent to be able to register.

While any of the accepted identity documents - such as passport, Aadhaar card, driving licence or voter card - would do, the proof of intent will be a document that users would have to fill up online.

The document will have a set of questions that every individual looking for a spouse online has to answer. The replies will be assessed to ascertain how serious the applicant is about marriage.

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"A detailed questionnaire asking them about how they want to use the portal, what kind of people they want to get in touch with and other queries will be made to gauge their psyche. The idea is to understand why they want to be registered on a matrimonial website," said a senior official of the women and child development (WCD) ministry.

Officials said the ministry would go through the guidelines before forwarding them to the information and technology ministry by next week. The guidelines will then be notified under the Information and Technology Act and will be mandatory for all matrimonial sites in the country.

Under existing norms, applicants don't have to face any kind of screening from a matrimonial website to register, while many don't even ask for any identity proof. The only way bona fide users can protect their profiles is by choosing from among a handful of security settings available on each website, such as barring non-paying members from viewing their profile and a mutual access clause.

Earlier this year, WCD minister Maneka Gandhi had said that strict measures would soon be in place to regulate such portals, following a series of complaints about fake profiles.

Once the guidelines are in place, the portals would come under the government's lens if any violations are reported, the sources said, adding that complaints would be addressed in a time-bound manner through a dedicated helpline number.

An official of a matrimonial website gave a guarded reply when told about the impending guidelines. "We are always concerned about the safety and security of our users and if the government guidelines are not too intrusive, making people stay away, we are happy with such measures," the official, who didn't want to be named, said.

Sources said the online matchmaking market was valued at around Rs 400 crore with at least 18-20 big players. Bharatmatrimony is the biggest of them all with 1.4 million profiles, followed by shaadi.com that claims to have 1.2 million users.

India has around 375 million Internet users, the third largest in the world after China and America.

A recent statement from the Internet and Mobile Association of India said by next year the country would overtake the US to have the world's second largest user base.

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