Names matter even if they are of orphans

Organisations must desist from name-changing exercise, says member, child welfare panel

What’s in a name? William Shakespeare had said, putting forth his argument that “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

But in practical life, many may disagree with the Bard of Avon because a name is a powerful piece of ‘who’ we are; it is a very personal thing, it identifies us and it is fundamental.

“The name may not be all of who we are and yet we are someone quite different when it changes,” says P. Deeksha, member of Child Welfare Committee, Krishna district.

Referring to an emerging issue of change of the names of orphan, semi-orphan, destitute or other children in need of help who are brought to the CWC, which in turn, hands them over to the local NGOs for care and support, she says the organisations must desist from the name-changing exercise.

“We have a name given at birth by parents which we keep for life. It gives us identity and nobody has the right to take away that identity,” she maintains.

Identity important

The CWC, based on the circumstances of the children in distress picked up from pavements, bus stations and railway stations by volunteers of Childline, a helpline for children in agony, entrusts their responsibility to a local NGO or a government welfare agency.

Many NGOs, in good faith, re-christen the children by giving them a new name believing that it will erase woeful memories of the past and help them start life afresh. “A new life starts only when the biological mother gives birth to a child. You cannot uproot a child’s identity by changing the name. We have parents coming back to us after a change of heart years later to take back their children. Change of identity makes it very difficult for us to trace the child,” she explains.

“We certainly do not support any attempt to take away a child’s original identity with which he/she is closely connected to. Name and nationality of an individual should not be tampered with. They are very sacred. In rarest of rare cases, may be you can have something additional to the original name,” says Fr. Thomas Koshy, Chairman of the CWC, Krishna district.