PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said that the Directorate of Social Welfare will now issue caste certificates to the children of single mothers on the basis of her credentials/caste certificate.“This benefit can be availed by all the single mothers belonging to SC, ST, OBC. It is a step towards ensuring benefits to children deprived of all the facilities they deserve,” he added.
Earlier, the caste certificates were issued only based on the fathers’ caste certificates or paternal side certificates.
However, the government has established some stipulations in providing the certificates, including that single mother is divorcee or widow or abandoned by her husband or her husband gets married to another woman or she faces harassment from her in-laws or separation or dependent on her marital home. Her children are being brought up in an unprivileged environment. The children are deprived of all the facilities available like reservation, scholarships which otherwise they deserve.
The notification also states that the Deputy Collector and SDM shall ensure that the children have grown up in a notified community or tribe and have suffered all the disadvantages and deprivations belonging to such community.
