Passports will not carry address, parents’ names 

Passports will not carry address, parents’ names 

Context

Orange jacket for ‘emigration check required’ passports

What

The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday announced that new passports will soon be printed without the names of parents and the home address of the applicant

Earlier declaration

The statement came even as it was declared that the passports for the Emigration Check Required (ECR) category will be printed with orange jackets.

Committee was set up

• A three-member committee comprising the officials of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Women and Child Development was constituted to examine various issues pertaining to passport applications where mother/child had insisted that the name of the father should not be mentioned in the passport and also relating to passport issued to children with single parent and to adopted children
• The decision was taken after the committee gave its report to the MEA on an application from a single mother for her child’s passport.

But data would still be captured via forms

However, sources said that application forms for new booklets would continue to capture the data regarding parents and postal addresses as mentioned in the passport holders’ previous booklets.

Consultation with ICAO :Last page no longer needed

• After consulting the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regarding compatibility of passport booklets minus the address and parents’ names printed on the last page, with Machine Readable Travel Documents
• the MEA concluded that, “the last page of the passport and other travel documents issued under the Passports Act, 1967 and Passport Rules, 1980 would no longer be printed”.

Printed at

Booklets with orange jackets would be designed by and printed at the Indian Security Press in Nasik.

ECNR will have blue jacket

It is understood that the passports in the Emigration Check Not Required (ECNR) category will continue to have blue jacket.

Summary

• The passport holders with ECR (Emigration Check Required) status would be issued a passport with orange jacket and those with non-ECR status would continue to get a blue passport
• Passports won’t serve as address proof anymore

Additional Information

• Indian passports have a blue cover, diplomatic and official passports have white and red jackets, respectively.
• Applicants who haven’t cleared 10th standard are given a passport with ECR category. This means if they want to travel abroad for work to a group of 18 countries, most of them in Gulf, they would only be allowed to leave India after obtaining an ‘Emigration clearance’ certificate from the office of Protector of Emigrants.

Another viewpoint

A senior government official claimed that a passport cover which visibly stigmatised its holder as not being well-educated may not be helpful and rather make them an easy prey for unscrupulous elements.