Norms eased for single moms to get passports for kids

NEW DELHI: A single mother applying for her child’s passport should be allowed to do so without having to declare the name of the father, a government panel has

NEW DELHI: A single mother applying for her child’s passport should be allowed to do so without having to declare the name of the father, a government panel has recommended.

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The three-member committee, comprising senior officials from the ministries of home, foreign affairs and women and child development (WCD), also recommended scrapping a provision in passport forms that mandates a single mother or divorcee to get the father’s signature and a no-objection certificate while applying.

The panel submitted its report to the ministry of external affairs (MEA) last fortnight. “It will now start the process of making the required changes to the passport rules,” said an official.

The panel was set up in July, after WCD minister Maneka Gandhi approached foreign affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to get the archaic 1980 passport rules related to single women amended. After deliberating for nearly two months, the panel has made a slew of recommendations aimed at making the entire process “hassle-free” for such applicants.

Gandhi took up the matter with Swaraj after Delhi-based single mother Priyanka Gupta launched an online campaign against “discriminatory rules” for those like her in July. The passport authorities had reportedly insisted that she write her husband’s name in the passport application for her daughter. Gupta said she saw no reason to do so, considering that her husband had abandoned them when the child was born. However, she eventually gave in after passport officials refused to budge.

Officials said the panel’s recommendation also assumes significance in the backdrop of a Delhi high court ruling in May, which stated that a single mother was not required to obtain the father’s signature while applying for a child’s passport. At present, a single mother applying for her child’s passport is required to submit an affidavit specifying if he/she was born out of wedlock, or the husband had deserted them after conception or delivery. The government committee has recommended doing away with the document. “We see no reason why a single woman needs to give such information in this day and age. It is outright demeaning. We have recommended against single mothers having to submit this affidavit,” said a senior government official.

The panel also recommended that a divorcee applying for renewal no longer be required to submit an affidavit with a copy of divorce documents. “Only if a woman who is separated, and her divorce is pending, should have to submit such a document. In all, we have recommended scrapping three affidavits that single women are required to submit,” another official added.