Women can retain their maiden names in passports after marriage: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing the 50th year celebrations of the IMC Ladies Wing.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said women are free to retain their maiden names in their passports now after the marriage.

While addressing Indian merchant Chamber's Ladies wing on its golden jubilee celebration, Modi said,''Women don't have to submit marriage/divorce certificate for passport. It'll be their discretion to use father/mother's name in passport.''

Underlining the need to give more opportunities to woman and bring in gender equality, the PM said," We have recently passed the Maternity Bill. Number of leaves have been more than doubled from 12 to 26 weeks.

Modi also spoke about the patriarchal society in India and questioned why is it that properties and houses are in the name of husbands? He said if house registry is done in the name of women, they won't have to submit the marriage or divorce certificate for getting a passport.

He also said that the government has set a target of 5 crore beneficiaries under the Ujjwala scheme over the next two years from 2 crore.

OneIndia News