Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said women were no longer mandated to submit certificates of their marriage or divorce and that if they so desired, they could henceforth have names of their father or mother in their passports.
Speaking at the 50th year celebrations of Indian Merchant Chamber (IMC) ladies Wing in Mumbai through video-conferencing from New Delhi, he said, “From now onwards, women will not have to change their names in the passport after their marriage.”
Modi said, “We have made a major change in the passport rules. There is currently no need for women to produce their marriage or divorce certificates and if they want, they can have the names of their father or mother in their passports. We are attempting at every level to generate jobs for women or encouraging them to come up in their lives through self- employment.”
Dwelling on various women-friendly initiatives taken by his Government, Modi said, “One of the most important decisions taken by us is to make woman the first beneficiary in the families availing the benefits of various Government schemes. Under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana, our primary objective will be to ensure that the registries are in the names of the house Registry”.
“We have initiated this for a simple reason: Even today, the situation in our society is such that the house is registered in the name of father or son or husband. Similarly, the vehicles are in the names of husband or son. It is necessary families to ensure that the properties are in the names of women. That’s why we are changing rules to make some set-ups women-centric. Our approach is paying dividends,” the Prime Minister said.
Among the women-friendly measures taken by his Government were: to increase maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks, to ensure that under the Disability Act the acid attack victims got same assistance or reservation as physically disabled persons and the panic button system connecting women in distress with police stations was working well while helpline 181 had become popular with women.
“When Gandhi returned to India from Africa and began public life from Sabarmati Ashram 100 years, Bapu met Ganga Baa who gifted him the ‘Charkha’” …That charka remained with Gandhi all through the freedom movement. Ganga had had charka that he had gifted to Gandhi as medium of women empowerment, a gift that inspired the father of the nation at that time,” the Prime Minister added.