Himachal shuts door on women marrying outside state

Women in Himachal Pradesh, think twice before marrying outside the state. You may end up becoming a pariah in your own state in the unfortunate event of becoming a widow or divorcee, thanks to a “biased” government policy.

Revenue officials in Himachal are denying bona fide certificates and, in many cases, even ration cards to women returning to the state after the end of their marriage due to divorce or death of husband, notwithstanding the fact that their generations have lived in the hill state.

The government’s logic is one cannot be a resident of two states at a time.

More than 5,000 such women have joined hands to claim bona fide residency. They say the rule is “biased” since it is not applicable to men marrying or working outside the state.

As revenue officials are not considering them permanent residents of Himachal, they are virtually finding themselves in no man’s land.

Most of these women do not own land in Himachal because, according to tradition, paternal property goes to male members of a family.

One such woman is Sunita. She returned to her paternal Haroli village in Una district 14 years ago after the death of her husband and has been staying there ever since. She runs a small family unit with her children.

Despite being born in Himachal and staying in the state for her entire life, but for a few years of marriage, she is not being considered a
permanent resident of the state by revenue authorities. She has been denied a bona fide certificate as well as a BPL ration card just because she was married outside the state.

Santosh, a resident of Dhimandari village in the same district, remarried in Himachal after the death of her first husband outside the state. However, revenue officials refused to give her son a bona fide certificate, saying he was not born in the state.

Senior officials in Shimla say the revenue department cannot be entirely blamed. The law for issuing bona fide certificates is very strict, they say.

“There are two categories of bona fide certificates. First mandates that a person’s generations should have been living in the state. Otherwise, s/he should have been staying in the state for more than 15 continuous years. Another direction is that a person cannot be a bona fide resident of two states at a time,” a senior revenue official says.

He says in case of an unmarried woman who has been staying in the state, there was no ambiguity.

“As  they have been staying in the state since birth, they can be issued bona fide certificates even in case they do not own land.”