Birth registration ends this month

The birth registration without ‘fee’ for fewer than 18 will close by the end of this month and the registrations of birth in the urban areas are lower than rural areas, sources said.
The ongoing birth registration for aged people with Tk 50 as fee will also end on June 30 this year.
After the deadline they (aged people) have to pay between Tk 5 and Tk 10 for each year of their respective ages as ‘fee’ for birth registration and certificate.
In the city corporation and cantonment board areas an aged people should have to pay Tk 10 for each years while in the rural areas the rate is Tk 5 for each year for birth registration and issuance of certificates.
However, children up to two years could register their date of birth and get certificates without cost, a concerned official of the Local Government Division said.
Earlier, the Government has introduced Birth and Death Registration Law on December 7, 2004. It started implementation on July 3, 2006 for birth registration for all.
An official of the ‘Birth and Death Registration Project (Phase-2) told The New Nation yesterday that till 31st March 2010, the inclusion of names in the birth registrar books stands 97.84 per cent.
Till last year, 53.60 per cent children under 5, have received their birth certificates, according to survey carried out by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF.
BRIS has made new software for digitising birth and death registration. Besides efforts are underway to set up a server to preserve all information of births and deaths centrally in the Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC).
UNICEF is assisting the Government in the process of birth and death registration. So, far it handed over computer sets to 826 Union Parishads (UPs), six City Corporations, 15 Cantonment Boards and all Deputy Commissioners (DC’s) offices to expedite the birth registration process. By the end of 2011, it will provide laptops to all districts under the plan of ‘ electronic birth and death registration’.
A concerned official of Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) said they have got a high number of applications for birth registration. He admitted that poor manpower capacity is hampering distribution of birth certificates on due time.
The birth certificate is important for a citizen to avail 16 services such as issuance of passport and driving licences, marriage registration, admission to educational institutions, opening of bank accounts, preparation of voter lists and all land registration and for National Identity Card.

Courtesy of The New Nation