The Kerala government in March 2020 had announced the opening of a 'safe home' to ensure the safe stay of couples who had married outside their caste and religion. Then Minister for Social Justice KK Shailaja had said that preliminary steps had been taken to set up a 'safe home' where such couples could stay for up to one year after marriage. The Minister's announcement came at a time when reports of people marrying outside their caste or religion facing ostracism and threats in several parts of the country, came to light.
However, there hasn't been any progress after the announcement as TNM confirmed with the Social Justice Department. The SJD had invited an Expression of Interest to set up the home during the last financial year. Only two applications were received in response, a concerned official said. "The Department received only two Expressions of Interest. Neither had any experience in running such homes. One was from a Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO) which had experience in running homes but not homes of this nature. The other one was also an NGO but lacked infrastructurual facilities. At least three applicants were required to go ahead with the finalising procedure," the officer said.
The SJD will once again invite EoI for setting up the home. “We haven’t given up the project. The Department had to focus on more urgent things,” the officer said. The SJD plans to set up one home for all the 14 districts of Kerala.
Recent instances of caste killings in Kerala are the murders of Kevin Joseph and Athira. Kevin, a 23-year-old Dalit Christian man, was abducted and murdered for marrying a woman outside his religion. An additional Sessions Court in Kottayam had referred to the case as an "honor killing". Two months before Kevin's death, in March 2018, Athira, a 22-year-old woman, was stabbed to death by her father on the eve of her wedding to a Dalit man.
Read: Why the Kevin murder trial is a landmark in the battle against casteism in Kerala
However, the number of caste killings in Kerala, when compared to other states, is low. As per data from the National Crime Records Bureau, in 2016, a total of 71 instances of 'honor killing' were reported from across the country while Kerala had zero cases.