The Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD), Government of Puducherry, has invited applications from natives of the Union Territory of Puducherry for the posts of Chairperson and Members of the Advisory Board under the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961. The notification is dated 29.09.2026, and the recruitment is for 20 posts in total — 4 Chairpersons and 16 Members. People looking up DWCD Puducherry Recruitment 2026 are usually looking for this same notification: the Puducherry Dowry Advisory Board Chairperson Member vacancy across the Union Territory. Each of the four regions — Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam — gets its own Advisory Board, and each board has five persons: one Chairperson and four Members. That is how the region-wise vacancy adds up: five posts in Pondicherry, five in Karaikal, five in Mahe and five in Yanam, making 20 in all. Each board is constituted under Section 8(B)(4) of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, and each board advises the Dowry Prohibition Officer concerned. The most important date in this recruitment is the last date: applications must reach the office of the Director on or before 20.10.2026. The notification date itself is 29 September 2026, so the window for sending in the application runs from the notification to 20 October 2026.

Eligibility for the DWCD Puducherry Chairperson Member Recruitment 2026 starts with nativity: applications are invited from natives of the Union Territory of Puducherry. Under Rule 8(1), a person to be appointed to the Board shall be a respectable and educated citizen of India engaged in public activity or social work, ordinarily residing within the jurisdiction of the Dowry Prohibition Officer concerned, and the Government may appoint one of the members as Chairperson. On composition, each board consists of not more than five social welfare workers, out of whom at least two shall be women, and out of the four members on each board, one person with legal experience will be considered. Candidates often ask about the DWCD Puducherry recruitment 2026 age limit: the age of the candidate shall not exceed 60 years as on 31.10.2026, and no lower age bound is stated in the notification. Age is reckoned as on 31 October 2026. On qualification, the application form asks for the Educational Qualification certificate, but no minimum qualification level is prescribed in the notification. There is also a disqualification rule to note: under Rule 8(2), a person shall be disqualified if convicted by a criminal court for an offence involving moral turpitude, if an undischarged insolvent, or if of unsound mind. Two questions come up again and again — is there an application fee, and is any payment made for these posts? No application fee is mentioned in the notification, and on payment the notification’s own wording is that no honorarium or remuneration will be paid. The term of office of the Chairperson and Members is five years unless otherwise decided by the Government.

The application is made by sending the filled-in form to the Director’s office. The prescribed application form is given in the Annexure of the official notification PDF, along with the terms and conditions, and the notification PDF is linked in the Important Links section. The form asks for the name, postal address, phone, email ID, gender, age or date of birth, residence of the UT of Puducherry, educational qualification, nature of professional experience, brief account of social activities, and any other details, and the candidate signs the declaration given in the form. The supporting documents asked for are proof of age or date of birth, proof of residence of the UT of Puducherry, the Educational Qualification certificate, the nature of professional experience certificate, a brief account of social activities with supporting documents, and any other details. The completed application is sent to the Director, Department of Women and Child Development, Housing Board Complex, (opp. to LIC) New Saram, Puducherry-13, and the office phones printed in the notification are 0413-2244964 and 2244782. The application must reach the office on or before 20.10.2026, and candidates should keep a copy of the filled form and the documents for their records. Finally, candidates often ask what the Advisory Board actually does: under Rule 8(10), the Board advises the Dowry Prohibition Officer and the Superintendent of Police in respect of matters relating to the Act and its effective implementation, with constructive suggestions and active assistance. The Board meets at least once in three months, and the quorum for a meeting is three. Updates for this recruitment can be checked through the official recruitment listing at py.gov.in and the DWCD website.