Single Mothers' Collective
Write in to singlemotherscollective1@gmail.com
A community can move things. In that pursuit, I started Single Mother’s Collective.
Our systems are not designed for single women or single mothers. For decades now, these single mothers (some out of choice, others out of compulsion) have been faulted for hoping to find their worth outside patriarchal settings. Moreover, the price paid includes a complicated individual and legal identity.
I personally have accompanied my mother every time we applied for identity proof/address proof. Ration Card, Including a name on the electoral list, and passport. Each and every instance saw us engage with hostile attitudes of those in government offices. The category of single women legally and at a policy level is not clearly defined.
Single women and by extension single mothers have to be seen as more than a cultural anomaly. The idea of an “acceptable family” has to expand. Marriage cannot be the sole criterion for women to earn societal respect.
Bureaucratic bias towards conventional families has to be called out. Single mothers cannot and should not be considered a residual category anymore. Separate policy focus is the need of the hour.
We at Single Mother’s Collective hope to build a strong community of women supporting each other. We also hope to work with authorities to make policies and laws more receptive and sensitive to the needs of this neglected category of Indians. At a broader level, we intend to start a global conversation on single parenting.
https://forms.gle/21FMshAqY2Df13Bh9
Resources
How the Indian System Keeps ‘Single’ Women Dependent on Others
A Tribute To My Mother As She Navigates A Patriarchal Society As A Single Woman With Vitiligo
This Single Mother Conducted Her Daughter’s Kanyadaan. Here’s Her Moving Story!