Child Born Out Of Wedlock 'Can't Be Called Illegitimate': NCW Chairperson

"Children born out of non-marital relationships cannot be called illegitimate," said Rekha Sharma, a Chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW). Sharma highlighted why endowing dignity and equality to the children of sex workers is important. 

On 12 July, Wednesday, while addressing a seminar, Sharma pointed out various challenges faced by sex workers and their children. She touched upon legal, health, occupational, and educational issues that kids encounter. NCW organised the discourse and discussed existing laws, access to legal services, and how it can bridge the gap in securing the right to equality. Health-related issues were also discussed in the seminar. 

NCW Chairperson Discussed Sex Worker's Issues

The seminar also displayed stories of sex workers and their children, showing hardships and how they are overcoming them for a better life. Deepak Pandey, IPS, Prevention of Crime against Women and Children, Maharashtra, along with Anup Kumar Yadav, Secretary, Women and Child Development (WCD), led the forum. The NGOs such as  PARI (People Against Rape in India), VAMP, Kranti, PRERNA, and Aastha Pariwar, also participated and discussed challenges faced by HIV-positive sex workers and their children.  

Maharashtra Minister of Women and Child Development Mangal Prabhat Lodha also recognised the potential role of the tourism and skill development ministries in rehabilitating these women and their children for a better future. 

When Rekha Sharma said children born out of non-marital relationships cannot be called illegitimate, she is talking from a boarder perspective. Probably, she is drawing inferences from the years of oppression women faced for having a child out of wedlock. How it gets carried with their children and hamper their future and life. 

 In a country like India, the term illegitimate child, or to say so in Hindi 'Najayaz Bacha' is used so casually. In a few films, the plots are based around the illegitimacy of a child. It is used as slang in daily life. The term is used in a very provocative way, just stigmatising it. The word doesn't make sense because the child is legit, and to prove the legitimacy, one doesn't require the father's identity. Can't alone mother's existence enough for the illegitimacy of a child? Because when someone is tagged the illegitimate, right at that moment, the person is confiscated of all his rights. Society also believes a person with a father's name cannot be a  good human and does not deserve everything that the world offers to a legit child. Given the scenario, society sees the children of sex workers in a grim light. They don't consider them human at all and are tagged to have impure blood. That is inhumane and insensitive. It is time we stop calling such children illegitimate and recongnise the rights of those children without having prejudices. 

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