Include mother in the Identity of a child

Include mother in the Identity of a child

Every human person is a unique person. Physiologically, psychologically, or intellectually we might be different but ultimately we are a child to our parent; brother and sister to our siblings; nephews and nieces to our parents’ brothers and sisters; grandchildren to our grandparents and relatives to whom we have blood relation. In one way or the other we are all interconnected being in this universe.

Practically every day we read in news report about the ill fate of mothers. We hear that mothers committed suicide, raped, strangled to death, beaten up by husband because of dowry, forced to do abortion and prostitution. The Times of India on July 9, 2014 reported that One Stop Crisis Centre ‘Gauravi’, a centre in Bhopal where women victims can seek help by directly walking in or by calling a toll free number, has witnessed more than 500 calls and 41 walk-ins in just three weeks. India is a place where there are many female goddesses being worshipped, is this supposed to be the status of our mothers in India?

The question asked by the Supreme Court as to ‘why are mothers ignored?’ should not be just a question but should evoke immediate action from government and people. Government need to recognize that mothers are part and parcel of a child. The Hindu reported on July 17, 2014 that mothers hardly match the authority a father commands in official documents necessary to prove a person’s identity. Indeed mother’s connection with a child is much deeper and stronger than what patriarchal society sees it. From womb to tomb we always find that there is always a mother.

The mother figure is the most centric figure in a child’s life. From infancy to adulthood, a mother’s role in influencing and shaping her child’s life does not cease. She is seen to take on various roles in her lifetime for the sake of her children and her family. She adopts roles of a playmate, a teacher, a friend, a companion and support system to her family.

The mother is the one who accompanies during childhood-playing with them and teaching them various things, schooling days- teaching them how to read and write, youth days- how to cope up with peer pressures and other teenage problems, while searching job they would accompany the child to office or pray for them, and while working they would prepare food for the child.

Mothers have done so much for the growth of a child. Is it not her fundamental right to be part of the identity of the child just like the father? In agreement to Mr Madhav Kant Mishra from Allahabad, who filed the petition in court that ignoring the parenthood of the mother in government documents is in gross violation of the Fundamental Right to Equality under Article 14 of the Constitution, mothers should be acknowledged and given equal importance as the paternal figures.