Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Mother's name can be taken for initials

By Our Special Correspondent

Chennai April 25. In a significant move to end gender bias, the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, today announced that students could soon take the first letter of their mother's name as initial.

Till now, only the first letter of the father's name could be taken as initial, unless the student had a widowed or divorced mother.

The Government would soon issue orders which would let students choose the first letters of both parents or one of them.

Amid loud thumping of desks, especially by women MLAs, she made the announcement immediately accepting a plea from the PMK leader, G.K.Mani, for ensuring representation to women in initials.

Missing GO copy

During her erstwhile regime in March 1994, an order was issued allowing students to take the first letter of their mother's name as initial in view of problems faced by women, separated from their husbands, divorced or widowed, while admitting their children to school. However, when she called for a copy of the order from the Education department, it was missing from the files, she said and ordered a probe into the "mysterious disappearance". Only a probe would unravel whether the previous DMK regime resorted to a deliberate "blackout" of her "good action", she said.

On a day when "gender justice" dominated the demand for grants for the Social Welfare department, Kasambu Poomalai (PMK) triggered a debate on making "initials" pro-woman, saying her leader, S.Ramadoss, advised partymen to take the first letter of their mother's name as initial.

Instantly, the Social Welfare Minister, B.Valarmathi, intervened to ask whether Dr.Ramadoss and his son, Anbumani, followed what they preached. When Mr. G.K.Mani, said it was more feasible to give such initials to new-borns, the Chief Minister said the practice was not new and that a matriarchal system existed in Kerala.

Later, the Chief Minister declared that she would launch a movement to remove gender "injustice" in `kudimagan' (citizen), used while taking an oath of office. When she wanted to state `kudimagal' instead of `kudimagan', she was informed that such a word did not exist in Tamil, Ms.Jayalalithaa said in response to the CPI (M) MLA, Balabarathi's plea for giving common titles in Tamil for both married and unmarried women.

The Transport Minister, R.Viswanathan, announced that two women would drive Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses in the city from tomorrow.

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