At some point on other, both my daughters have asked me why it is that they could not attach my surname to their name and why only their father’s surname was an option as their family name. They were particularly puzzled about this since in their limited worldview I was their sole progenitor or ‘manufacturer’. Now however in Maharashtra official documents will permit children to use either their mother’s or their father’s name. A recent resolution from the state’s Women and Child Welfare Department said.
What the notification says
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Thus far, married women were required to use their husband’s name in all official documents and children had to use their father’s name. This is still very much the case everywhere else. The new notification lets women use either their father or their husband’s name and children can choose between their mother and their father’s names. If anyone faces problems exercising this choice, they are free to seek redress from the district collector with jurisdiction over the area.
Why the notification is a huge step
India is still overwhelmingly and oppressively patriarchal. A woman is still very much an inconsequential cog in the family wheel that is identified primarily by the man who ‘heads’ it. When she is born her name is linked to her father’s family and then upon marriage she becomes an irretrievable part of the husband’s family and family name. Her own identity is forever secondary to that of the man she is primarily related to.
The tradition of taking the father and then the husband’s name sits well within the patriarchal scheme of things where women’s choices and activities are restricted and circumscribed under the guise of many things including women’s own protection, the good of the family, the carrying forward of the ‘kul’ or ‘vansh’ or dynasty. The tradition also keeps intact the power structures that retain authority for the family’s male members while permitting them to control family wealth, decision making and hence the destinies of other family members.
The recently passed resolution in Maharashtra simplifies matters for practical purposes; where single mothers do not have to face the inconvenience and in cases the humiliation of having to link to a male family member for the purposes of official documents. The resolution also makes a huge ideological concession that women as progenitors and primary caregivers deserve the right to be named in official documents. The resolution actually envisages an identity for women beyond the one conferred on her by a male relative. This is huge.
Author – Reena Daruwalla
