To bring a significant change in the system, Women and Child Welfare Minister Maneka Gandhi has urged External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to amend passport rules that make listing the father’s name a mandatory requirement.
The decision to change the regulation is being considered thinking about the problem of the single mothers in the country. Recently, a woman called Priyanka Gupta, a single mother from Delhi, had started a petition on change.org, after her daughter was denied of passport without her father’s name, despite knowing that the man had abandoned them.
Priyanka, on her petition, said, “The judiciary has given progressive judgements that say that the father’s name is not required. We tried to convince the passport officer, wrote letters, met senior officers but our request was denied. In the end, we were forced to include his name. Every time my daughter looks at her passport, she sees the name of a person who hurt her, who abandoned her.”
Have received petitions where #mother/ #child have insisted that name of the father should not be mentioned in #passport.(1/6) @SushmaSwaraj
— Maneka Gandhi (@Manekagandhibjp) July 15, 2016
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The petitions involved cases in which the father had abandoned the mother & the Court had granted custody of the child to the mother. (2/6)
— Maneka Gandhi (@Manekagandhibjp) July 15, 2016
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The current guidelines for #passports warrant the name of the father as a mandatory requirement. (3/6) @SushmaSwaraj @MEAQuery
— Maneka Gandhi (@Manekagandhibjp) July 15, 2016
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The Delhi HC on July 15, 2016, stated that it was not essential to mention the name of the father if the mother & child so desired. (4/6)
— Maneka Gandhi (@Manekagandhibjp) July 15, 2016
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Statistics reveal that no. of single parents in the country is increasing both by way of conscious decision & by breakdown of marriages. 5/6
— Maneka Gandhi (@Manekagandhibjp) July 15, 2016
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I have requested Smt @SushmaSwaraj ji to look into the matter & get necessary modifications done in the rules for issuance of #passports.6/6
— Maneka Gandhi (@Manekagandhibjp) July 15, 2016
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Her petition, as on Friday evening, had received over 43,000 signatures.
Statistics reveal that number of single parents in the country is increasing both by way of conscious decision and by the breakdown of marriages. Maneka Gandhi has requested external Sushma Swaraj to look into the matter and get necessary modifications in the rules of assurance of passports.
