|
The Home Minister, Shri Shivraj Patil will launch the second phase of the National Campaign on Birth Certificates at a function here tomorrow. The first phase of the Campaign had been launched in November, 2003 which focused on issue of birth certificate to children who have been registered and are living in village/town of birth. About 3.04 crore birth certificates were issued in one year as against 14.4 crore births that were registered during the last ten years.
Birth registration is mandatory in India under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1969. It has also been recognized as a right of the child under the United Nation’s Convention on Rights of the Child 1989 to which India is a signatory. The birth certificate is the first legal document that contains particulars about a child and therefore is important as the first document of identity of the child. The Registration of Births and Deaths Act also makes it compulsory to issue a birth certificate free of charge on timely registration. However, the issue of certificates has been affected due to the difficulties in reaching out to the concerned families living far away in case of births in hospitals or when the mother has given birth to the child at her parent’s house. This poses problems when a birth certificate is required at a later stage in the child’s life for proving date and place of birth.
Therefore, the office of the Registrar General, India had initiated the National Campaign on Birth Certificates in 2003 with the objective of clearing the backlog in issue of birth certificates to children born during 1994-2003 and the first phase of the campaign was launched at that time. During the National Conference of the Chief Registrars held in January, 2005, the progress of issue of birth certificates was reviewed and it was decided to launch a second phase of campaign to cover the children to whom birth certificates have not been issued in the first phase. The focus in this phase of the campaign would be to ensure that the children getting admitted to schools have the particulars on date and place of birth being entered into the school records based on the birth certificates.
There are about 10 crore children born during the last ten years whose births have not been registered. In addition, there are about 7 crore children whose births were registered but are not having birth certificates as they were not covered in the first phase. The campaign would be targeted to benefit these children.
The Executive Director of UNICEF, Ms. Carol Bellamy would also be participating in the function while launching the second phase of the National Campaign on birth certificates.
OK/RCP/AD/MM
|
