Delhi reviews family ID plan to retain married women on parental records

A married woman’s name may remain on her parental family record after it is added to her husband’s household under Delhi’s proposed family identity system.

Delhi is reviewing Haryana’s Parivar Pehchan Patra model while considering the proposed Delhi Parivar Pehchan Act. The plan would create a central database of families in the Capital and issue family cards to streamline access to welfare schemes and public services.

Officials said Haryana’s model removes a woman from her parental family record after marriage and adds her to her husband’s family. Delhi is examining whether that arrangement could create ambiguity when a woman seeks her legal share in her father’s property under succession law.

Under the arrangement being considered, her name would remain in her parental family database while also being added to her husband’s database. Subsidies and other benefits would be available through the husband’s household, officials said.

Officials studying Haryana’s administrative, legal and technological systems are assessing how a Delhi database could align with existing inheritance laws.