Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi on Sunday urged Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar to change a rule that makes it mandatory to mention the father’s name on a student’s degree certificate. In a letter, she pointed out that single mothers and women separated from their husbands face problems getting the certificates issued for their children without their father’s name, PTI reported.

“Keeping in view the sensitivity of the single/separated mother, we need to make a provision for this purpose by changing rules/guidelines,” Gandhi said in the letter, adding that the rules must reflect the reality that “breakdown of marriages and separation between husband and wife” is part of society.

At Gandhi’s insistence, the External Affairs Ministry had in December 2016 revised its passport application guidelines and announced that only one parent’s name was enough to apply for the document. She had referred an online petition calling for the change to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. The rules were also revised to do away with the need for the separated or divorced to produce a marriage certificate.