Human Rights Advocacy
Birth registration : Fundamental right of a child
Shanta Sultana
Sharmin Akhter Kona was only 14 when she eloped with her boyfriend. Kona's family did not approve the marriage saying it was illegal as she was underage. Her father even filed an abduction case against her boyfriend, but lost the case as he could not produce documents in support of his claim.
“In our time, there was no birth registration system. We hardly used the real age of children in any registration purpose. Now I understand the importance of having a birth registration certificate. If we had the birth registration certificate of our teenage daughter, they could not have escaped justice,” says Kona's upset father.
Kona's case is not unique. Many families face such problems and cannot even prove the truth simply for lack of birth certificates.
Consider the case of Naila (not real name), who was interested more in music than her classroom lessons. Having repeated some classes, she eventually passed SSC in 2004 at the age of 19. After her SSC, she could not participate in a music competition organised by Bengal Foundation because she was 16 according to the certificate and no one under 18 was allowed to take part in it. “If I had a birth certificate showing my real age I could have participated in the contest I so much longed for,” says Naila.
To tackle such problems, the government has recently passed Birth and Death Certificate Act 2004. However, since 1996 the Local Government Department with assistance from UNICEF and other development partners has been conducting various activities regarding birth registration.
Birth registration is a fundamental right of a child. In 1873, a birth registration law was enacted. Under that law, birth registration was mandatory within eight days of a child's birth. Later, union parishad and pourasava chairmen were given responsibility of birth and death registrations under Local Government Ordinance 1976 (amendment of 1873) and Pourasava Ordinance 1977.
But, a booklet, provided for those who are involved in a birth and death registration project under the Local Government Department, states that births of mere seven per cent Bangladeshi children have been registered. Lack of use of birth certificates to determine age, skilled manpower, necessary tools (forms, registration books, birth certificates etc) and public awareness are the reasons cited in the booklet for this poor performance.
According to the new law, the birth of a child has to be registered within 45 days. If a child does not have full name he or she will have to be registered by nickname and within next 45 days the child must be registered by his or her full name. In the case of late registration, one has to pay late registration fee. For failing to register, the legal guardian of a child can be fined Tk 500 or be awarded two months' imprisonment or be punished by both.
Talking to some guardians outside Children's Hospital in the capital's Agargaon area, it has been learnt that they do not know anything about birth registration. One of the guardians, Morshed Bashar, a businessman of Taltola area, says, “My eight-month-old child is yet to be registered and I don't know what advantages I or my child will get after the registration.”
Commenting on this, a high official of birth and death registration project, who does not wish to be named, says, “Birth registration of a child is the first step towards ensuring his or her basic rights. A child can enjoy many facilities, including citizenship by birth, right to primary education, exclusion from being employed as a child labourer, exclusion from early marriage, right to inherit property and return to the country after being trafficked. To ensure this, the new law has been formulated and now all works are underway to enforce this.”
Many non-government organisations have long been working for the publicity and implementation of the law. Village Education Resource Centre (VERC) is one of them. It campaigned to encourage the people of two unions of Singair upazila in Manikganj district to register births of their children.
As part of their campaign, the VERC people held separate meetings with primary and high school teachers, students, religious leaders and kazis (who conduct Muslim marriages) to describe the advantages and necessities of birth registration. Their efforts resulted in birth registration of 60 per cent children in Singair upazila.
Mainul Islam of VERC says, “We're making people aware. Even then it's the responsibility of the union parishad (UP) to register birth. But, it was seen that when a villager went to union parishad to register a birth either the chairman was absent or the other people concerned did not cooperate with him.”
A ward commissioner of capital's Mohammadpur area, who spoke on condition of anonymity, informs that birth registration is not done at the offices of commissioners, but anyone insists for, a birth is registered for Tk 800. When asked the reason for taking money against the rule, he says Tk 800 is charged as conveyance because someone will have to travel to the City Corporation for collecting form and getting other necessary works done.
Due to these problems, Mohammadpur resident Rezaul Karim says, “My two-year old child is yet to be registered because I do not know where to go, whom to speak to and how much it costs.”
The newly passed law states that UP members and secretaries, village police, city corporation or pourasava commissioners, health workers and family welfare workers employed at UPs, pourasavas, city corporations and cantonment areas, fieldworkers of health and family planning related NGOs, medical officers or doctors of hospitals or clinics, caretakers of graveyards or crematoriums shall assist with birth and death registrations.
Another high official of the birth and death registration project says, “Although a new law has been enacted, there has been no progress in birth registration due to the complications in the process. This time we're working on how this service can easily be made available to the people. We'll try our best, but the guardians should register the births of their children on their own.”
Asked why birth registration has not been effective so far despite the presence of a new law, he says until now birth certificate was not needed anywhere. Now, birth certificate is being made easily available to ordinary people.
Although the government, UNICEF and many NGOs have been working hard on birth registration, there has not been any tangible response from the people. So, the birth and death registration project officials underline the importance of carrying out media campaign to make the guardians aware about it.
Photo: The Hindu
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