The Indian passport and the proposed changes to be made to it were much in the news recently. It was proposed that the colour of the passports of some people would be changed to orange. However, there was a large-scale public outcry against this proposed move and the social media was positively heaving with displeasure. The proposed change over to orange passports will no longer be executed. Our passports will remain blue.
Indian passports are of three colours: red for diplomats, white for government employees travelling on official work and blue for the rest of us. The blue passport colour is the same for every citizen whether they require emigration checks or not. The proposed passport changes were to change the colour of the passports of those needing emigration checks to orange.
The proposal for changing the passport colour for some Indian citizens was aimed at streamlining the process of immigration checks. The last page of the passport containing details about the citizen's residence and details of parents was also proposed to be removed. The government’s rationale for changing the passport colour was that this measure would help protect vulnerable labourers from exploitation abroad.
The change was also supposed to curb human trafficking and make it more difficult since those with orange passports would automatically be subjected to closer checks. The proposed passport changes, however, attracted criticism and sparked debate about the discriminatory nature of the proposed changes.
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