Passports To Stay Blue, Retain Address. Government Drops Plan Orange

The government has dropped its idea to issue orange colored passports afresh and passports to stay blue with retention of address on it. Such passports were meant for persons who could not have cleared their Class 10 examination. Now it has decided to continue printing its existing blue type of passports in order to retain the passports with a valid address.

The matter of review came due to sharp criticism against the change, which was treated as discriminatory against persons issued orange passports. In this connection a petition was also filed in the Kerala High Court arguing that workers having orange colored passports would be more harassed and exploited due to their apparent status of passports.

In a declaring statement the foreign ministry on Tuesday had said that it had decided to continue the existing practice of printing the last page of the passport. Further it also decided passports to stay blue and not to issue a separate orange colored passports to ECR (Emigration Clearance Required) passport holders. Currently passports are issued in three colors. Government officers are issued white passports, diplomats do get red passports, while the remaining passports are issued in blue color.

Now the Foreign Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar in a statement also declared not to issue a separate passport with orange color jacket to ECR passport holders.The Government had clarified that the ensuing orange passports would be issued to safeguard the ordinary workers from exploitation abroad, but the Congress president Rahul Gandhi along with other critics argued that issuance of orange and blue color coding would be discriminatory against the under privileged and less educated laborers.

Emigration Check required i.e. ECR category is meant for such applicants who couldn’t have completed school and isgoing abroad for work to the Gulf or a group of 18 countries. Before leaving India they will have to procure an ‘Emigration Clearance Certificate’ from the office of the Protector of Emigrants.

Mr. Gandhi had opined that such act would be discriminatory against India’s migrant workers who might be treated like 2^nd class citizens. Then he tweeted that it was not acceptable to him at all. He also said that such action of BJP had demonstrated their discriminatory mindset.

The foreign ministry by their Tuesday’s statement said that the decision to change the color coding of the passports had been taken on reference from a 3 member committee, which included an official of the Women and Child development Ministry.

The United Nations’ latest International Migration Report has also endorsed that the largest number of people originally born in India and now living/working abroad are the highest. The number of such India born workers living abroad has been estimated to a total of 17 million in 2017. According to a World Bank Report such persons annually do send an estimated amount of $ 69 billion.