My surname is D'Gama.  D[apostrophe]Gama.  There are thousands like me who have either an apostrophe or a hypen as part of their names. This is a construct common to names of Portuguese descent in Goa, Karnataka, and West Bengal. However, the Employee's Provident Fund Office (EPFO) claims that their "system" does not allow the apostrophe. My wife has been unable to claim her PF after retirement four months ago.  The EPFO has advised her to change her Government issued identity documents in order to claim her PF. They have specifically indicated that the Aadhar card has to be changed by dropping the apostrophe!  This can also impact immovable property, vehicles and any other place the full name is required. 

Changing one's name to suit a computer program is unacceptable as this will impact several other documents, most importantly, the Passport.  My entire family of 5 adults has the apostrophe in their names in the Aadhar cards, Birth Certificates and Passports. My three children even managed to get the apostrophe put into their PAN cards.  Driving licences, unfortunately, have a space instead of the apostrophe. All our bank accounts have the apostrophe. 

The problem could be either with the computer programme or the computer operator. In the passport office some of the operators do not know where to find the apostrophe on the keyboard. So, they refuse to type it. For the PAN card, the online software has a spell-check which does not accept special characters. This can be turned off and all of us with 'special characters' will get our names back.

Please sign this petition requesting the IT Ministry / Finance Ministry to update their programs and educate their employees in order to ensure that we do not need to change our names to be registered citizens of India and to avail of services which are rightfully ours.