Gujarat passport office "adds" to woes of abandoned children, doesn't know birth certificate isn't mandatory

By A Representative
Does the passport office in Gujarat, widely proclaimed as a “model” state, not know that orphan/abandoned children are exempted from the mandatory requirement of submission of a birth certificate along with passport application form? It would seem so if what happened on Friday is any indication.
A senior activist of Ahmedabad-based non-government organization (NGO), who has adopted a girl child, has told Counterview that she approached the Gujarat passport office for finding out the procedure for getting a passport for her, but was "shocked" to find later that the officials do not know about it.
“Today, I went to passport office and they said they will not proceed without a birth certificate – I was about to file a writ and came across a government notification, about which the passport officials not aware”, the activist said.
“Now I want other parents to know so that they are not harassed”, the activist said, adding, “Those of us who adopt such children struggle hard for getting passports of our kids, for which they insist on birth certificates which is not available – so people end up bribing, finding various means for getting one.”
Saying that all this is clearly “psychologically damaging for the mother as well as the child”, the activist quoted from the Ministry of External Affairs notification, dated May 26, 2015, which says that the birth certificate is no longer necessary if the child is an orphan or has been abandoned, provided she or he is born on or after January 26, 1989.
The notification (click HERE) says that, the ministry in its circular dated February 14, 1989, had decided that all the applicants born or after January 26, 1989, would “mandatorily require to provide a birth certificate issued by the Municipal Authority or the Registrar of Births & Deaths as proof of date of birth along with the passport application form.”
The May 2015 notification says, “In the recent past, a number of references have been received from various orphanages/childcare homes and legal experts highlighting the plight of those orphan/abandoned children born on or after January 26, 1989, who could not get the passport facilities in the absence of mandatory birth certificate in support of their date of birth proof.”
“Such children are unable to obtain the birth certificates as the names of biological parents are not known to them and the precise date of birth cannot be ascertained”, the notification says, adding, “Various representations have been received in the Ministry for relaxing the statutory condition of production of birth certificate for passport in respect of such orphan/abandoned children.”
On considering such requests/representations, the notification says, “It has been decided that the Passport Issuing Authorities (PIAs) while processing the case of orphan/abandoned children born on or after January 26, 1989”, may consider providing any of the optional certificates along with their passport application.
These include:

Copy of the birth certificate, or
Date of birth recorded in the matriculation certificate issued by duly recognized/affiliated educational institution along with the bonafide certificate duly sworn by the Head of the orphanage/childcare home (in case of minor) or by applicant himself (in case of major) before the First Class Judicial Magistrate/Executive Magistrate categorically stating his/her date of birth/place of birth; or
Declaratory Court order issued by the court of competent jurisdiction recording the date of birth/place of birth of such an applicant in the order.

Insisting that “all PIAs In India and abroad are requested to comply with the above instructions”, the notification has been signed by India’s Chief Passport Officer.

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By A Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

May the Earth Be Auspicious: Vedic ecology and contemporary crisis in Ashok Vajpeyi’s poetry

By Ravi Ranjan* Ashok Vajpeyi, born in 1941, occupies a singular position in contemporary Hindi poetry as a poet whose work quietly but decisively reorients modern literary consciousness toward ethical, ecological, and civilizational questions. Across more than six decades of writing, Vajpeyi has forged a poetic idiom marked by restraint, philosophical attentiveness, and moral seriousness, resisting both rhetorical excess and ideological simplification.

Would breaking idols, burning books annihilate caste? Recalling a 1972 Dalit protest

By Rajiv Shah A few days ago, I received an email alert from a veteran human rights leader who has fought many battles in Gujarat for the Dalit cause — both through ground-level campaigns and courtroom struggles. The alert, sent in Gujarati by Valjibhai Patel, who heads the Council for Social Justice, stated: “In 1935, Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti . In 1972, we broke the idol of Krishna , whom we regarded as the creator of the varna (caste) system.”

Search This Blog