NEW DELHI: Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Sunday said that large number of Muslim women likely to go to in 2019 Hajj without ‘Mehram'(husband or a male first blood relation as guardian).
During a meeting with representatives of organisations associated with Hajj in various states, Naqvi said that till now more than 2,23,000 applications for Haj pilgrimage 2019 has been received by the Hajj Committee of India, according to media reports.
In a statement issued by the office of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, he was quoted as saying that about 47 percent of these applicants are women.
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Last year, 1,300-odd women able to travel for Hajj pilgrimage without ‘Mehram’ and that too without subsidy. They were for the first time exempted from the lottery system and allowed to proceed on Hajj, he said.
The Haj application process began on 7th November 2018 and its last date is 12th December. Naqvi said that over two thousand women have applied for Hajj without ‘Mehram’ and is expected to increase further.