Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been facing backlash since he made the statement about changing women’s name in passport while addressing the Indian Merchants Chambers’ Ladies Wing on April 14. Interestingly, after observing closely, it was found that PM Modi’s statement was misreported by the media industry.
Here is what PM Modi actually said in his speech and what media reported:
PM Modi said “Now women won’t have to give their divorce or marriage certificates while applying for a passport. It will be up to a woman on whether she would like to use her mother’s or father’s name.”
While, the media’s version was, “from now onwards, women will not have to change their names in the passport after marriage, they can retain their maiden names in passports.”
During his address, PM Modi was referring to the changes in the passport rules notified by the External Affairs Ministry in December 2016. Here, the maiden name was to do with single parents who want to apply for passports for their children.
The new rules include the following:
No affidavit or Marriage Certificate required for married applicants.
Name of Spouse not required for separated/divorced applicants. Such applicants for passports would not be required to provide even the Divorce Decree.
Several top guns of Indian media industry applauded PM Modi’s move. But microblogging site Twitter had something else to say. The misquoting of PM Modi’s statement invited reactions from several women on Twitter as they questioned how this was different from earlier provisions.
@TimesNow Whats new in this it was never mandatory i still have maiden name in my passport with my husband name endorsed in spouse details
— Pinky (@pinkeeisin) April 13, 2017
Wasn’t that the case for many years now? I haven’t changed my surname post marriage & had no issues with that when I renewed my passport. https://t.co/4iDW2ocKEX
— Renuka Shahane (@renukash) April 13, 2017
Under the law it’s entirely up to the woman whether she wants to change her name after marriage forget about the passport! https://t.co/7KwerDLBIl
— Swati Chaturvedi (@bainjal) April 13, 2017
A woman has always had the choice of whether or not to change her name post marriage in the passport.
