Delhi rethinks Haryana family ID model over inheritance concerns for married women

Officials are concerned that removing married women from their parental family records could create complications when they seek to claim inheritance rights

The Delhi government is reconsidering aspects of the Haryana model for implementing the proposed Delhi Parivar Pehchan Act, with concerns that the way family records are maintained could create complications in matters of inheritance, particularly for married women, officials said on Friday.

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. Delhi government officials are reviewing Haryana’s Parivar Pehchan Patra model before introducing a proposed family identity system in the Capital (Sonu Mehta/Hindustan)

The government had earlier planned to adopt Haryana’s Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) as the model for introducing a family identity framework in the Capital. Through the Act, the Delhi government aims to create a single, central database of all families living in the Capital and issue official “family cards”

Delhi reviews Haryana model over inheritance concerns

HT had earlier reported that the government was planning a single family ID card to streamline access to government schemes and public services. Delhi officials have visited Haryana to study the administrative, legal and technological mechanisms used to operate the database.

“The key concern relates to the way a married woman’s family details are recorded. Under the Haryana model, a woman’s name is removed from her parental family and added to her husband’s family after marriage,” said an official aware of the matter.

Married women’s parental family records under scrutiny

Officials are concerned that this could have implications if a woman later seeks to exercise her legal rights in her father’s property. If her name no longer appears in the family records on her parental side, questions could potentially be raised over her relationship with that family while processing an inheritance claim, the official explained.

The concern is particularly significant because the proposed family identity system is expected to create a consolidated database of households. The Delhi government wants to ensure that the database does not inadvertently affect an individual’s existing legal rights, another official said.

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Proposed system to retain women in both family databases

Officials are therefore examining whether the family records can be structured differently so that marriage does not result in a woman effectively being removed from her parental family records.

“The issue is not about determining a woman’s inheritance rights through the family database, but ensuring that the administrative records do not create any ambiguity or become a basis for contesting those rights in the future,” an official said.

“The government is now proposing a system under which a woman’s name will not be deleted from her father’s family database; it will also be added to her husband’s family. However, she will be eligible for subsidies and other benefits from her husband’s side,” he added.

The proposed system is intended to make it easier for the government to identify households and deliver welfare schemes and other services.