A giant step towards
fulfilling child rights
Edited and designed by Nitya Jacob,WriteShop Infotech Private Limited,
B1/1572 Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, India.
Universal Birth Registration
Cover picture: A woman in Madpur village of Rajasthan proudly displays her children’s birth certificates. Picture credit: Maitreyee Saha Ganapati
Contents
Introduction 3
Andhra PradeshIncentives for girl child push up registration 9
Delhi and MumbaiFocus on urban kids in vulnerable situations 17
KarnatakaPeople are willing but officials dither 25
RajasthanPartnership with government holds the key 33
Pune and ChennaiPublicity blitzkrieg for rapid results 41
T’S a piece of paper, but it holds the registration of births and deaths is lower
key to many doors. A birth certificate in rural areas then in urban areas.Ican unlock the door to a school, a
hospital or foreign land. It can also lock A mandatory actdoors, to abuse, early marriage and
Birth registration is mandatory in India trafficking. More than all of these, it is the under the Registration of Births and first main permanent identity of its Deaths (RBD) Act of 1969. The govern-holder.ment is obliged to register all births as
Birth certificates mean different things to India is a signatory to the United Nations people. Its power as the basic identity Convention on Rights of the Child document of a human being is increas- (CRC) that has recognized birth regis-ingly being recognized in India, while in tration as the first right of the child. developed countries it has long been Article 7 of the CRC says a child should accepted as fact. The Universal Birth be registered immediately after birth Registration (UBR) campaign run by and have the right from birth to a name Plan India in eight states of India aims at and the right to acquire a nationality. 100 per cent registration of births by
Birth registration is a key event in a 2010.child's life. It is also essential for data
Birth registration is a fundamental right collection, that is the basis of planning of a child. Yet, it is uneven across India. and policy. A birth certificate:Some states register nearly all births, 1. Is an affirmation of a person's identity while others register less than one in – nationality, parentage and age
2. Is a legal document that can be used three. For example, in Gujarat, to procure a large number of other legal Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra, and administrative documents and there is more than 90 per cent registra-privileges like school admission, ration tion, while Kerala records 100 per cent. card and bank accountHowever, in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar 3. Is a powerful document in case of a Pradesh and Rajasthan, the registration legal situation faced by an individual, or rate is less than 50 per cent.in case of an accident where the state is
According to the Office of the Registrar involved that can ensure timely and General of India (ORGI), only 59 per appropriate redresscent of births and 51 per cent of deaths
The rate of birth registration is low are registered in the country. This because of many factors. The most means that, annually, about 12 million of important is a lack of awareness among
26 million births do not get registered. people in rural areas and slums of the
Further, only 19 per cent of children importance of registration. They feel it is under 5 have birth certificates. The simply not worth the trouble to get a birth
The basis of identity &
a fundamental right
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registered or to get a certificate because of the time and expense involved.
Junior government officials such as village accountants and clerks in municipalities, who are the local registrars under the RBD Act, view registration as an added responsibility. This is the attitude even among more senior government officials. They are also The states selected for the UBR cam-ignorant of how to discharge this part of paign are moderate performers but
their duty. there are pockets where birth registra-tion percentages are low. These states
Another impedi- are Rajasthan (nine distr icts) , ment is a lack of Karnataka (eight districts), Andhra uniformity in the Pradesh (eight districts), Tamil Nadu, admin is t ra t i ve Maharashtra as well as Delhi and processes of civil Mumbai. The strategy in each has been registration. The tailored to local ground realities. In each admin is t ra t ive state, there is one nodal agency that machinery for works with a network of partner NGOs in registration and the different districts. collection of data varies from state These organizations have to state. In some conducted situation analyses, district s t a t e s , t h e launches and orientation meetings for responsib i l i ty various stakeholders. Review commit-
lies with the health department, tees at all levels have been formed. in others with the department of eco-nomics and statistics services, the P l a n a i m s t o revenue department or with the i n c r e a s e t h e Panchayat. percentage of birth registration
by raising both The UBR campaignthe demand and supply. To build
Plan launched the UBR campaign in demand, there is Delhi with film star Anil Kapoor as its a strong aware-goodwill ambassador in January 2006. ness campaign Television were shown on private about the importance and need for birth channels, Doordarshan, and major registration. This has been imple-cinema halls in Delhi. In addition, book- mented through community meetings lets and posters were produced. The with SHGs and youth groups. It has also government has used the TV spots as used posters, wall writing, hoardings, part of its media plan. puppet shows, kala jathas and street
Plan is working with 52 NGOs across 173 blocks in 27 districts.
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plays. Some 90,000 posters in local p e r s o n n e l languages, 1,300 instances of wall a b o u t t h e i r writing and 1,200 street play perfor- responsibilities mances have been carried out; the under the RBD number continues to grow. The impact Actof the campaign has been immediate – b . A t t h e an estimated 1,70,000 children have g r a s s r o o t s been registered in Rajasthan, with children, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu so far. f a m i l i e s ,
communities To improve and accelerate the birth and CBOsregistration service delivery system, the c . W i t h campaign is training grassroots govern- members of ment functionaries, Panchayati Raj elected bodies like panchayats, munici-Institution (PRI) members and NGO palities, etcworkers. d. With government officials from chief
registrars to village level functionaries2. Capacity building of government functionaries concerned with birth registration3. Strengthening community gover-nance at the level of PRIs and CBOs to decentralize vital events registries4. Campaign for registration and pro-viding identity to Children in Difficult Circumstances (CIDC) – street, vulner-able and tsunami-affected children
International goal, These training sessions enable them to local focusplay their part in birth registration and make it more accessible to villagers. In Delhi and Mumbai, Plan has launched The training sessions have covered pilot initiatives that focus on CIDC. They auxilliary nurse-midwives (ANMs), will identify bottlenecks that hamper the anganwadi workers (AWWs) and village registration of these children. It also off ic i als responsible aims to increase analysis, compilation
for issuing birth and use of civil registration data for certificates. macro level planning and programming.
Ultimately, they will suggest policy U n d e r t h e changes to facilitate the process of birth U B R c a m- registration for these groups.paign, part-n e r s a n d In Delhi, NGOs have surveyed their stakeholders project areas and compiled lists of implementing unregistered children. Their cases are the following: being taken up with the authorities. In 1 . Mumbai, the campaign is focusing on
Awareness generation awareness generation and surveying a. In maternity homes, hospitals and the project areas.health care institutions and paramedical
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In Karnataka, the campaign began with awareness generation through the media, posters and hoardings and workshops for panchayats. It pro-gressed to registration camps orga-nized by NGOs where children were issued birth certificates. It is marked by a strong media component run by its partner, Voices. This comprises of radio programmes and television spots. Lok Adalats were conducted in different villages to record the complaints of villagers and have them addressed on the spot by the local officials.
In Rajasthan, the UBR campaign is marked by strong support from the state
In Andhra Pradesh, the UBR campaign government. From the state to the aims to work with NGOs and CBOs, village level, this has ensured that youth groups and PRIs. Children and government officials and even village-youth have played a central role in the level functionaries cooperate with the state campaign, working with ANMs, NGOs and CBOs. The commitment is anganwadi workers and PRI members. such that district-level organizations can They have formed UBR committees approach the state registrar in case of through which they organize awareness problems.campaigns and work with local govern-ment functionaries. To ensure that birth registration outlives
the UBR campaign, Plan is integrating it
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with mainstream health programmes. place of usual residence For instance, the Kopal Project, a Plan ?Allowing change of name only once initiative, addresses female foeticide by in a life time in the birth recordpromoting registration of births and deaths. The project is being imple- The UBR campaign is part of a larger mented in four northern states of Bihar, strategy of Plan International on birth Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and registration. In 1998 along with UNICEF, Uttaranchal. It has emerged that work- it launched the Unregistered Children ing on foeticide is far more effective Project (UCP) which was designed to when linked to birth registration activi- assess the magnitude of non-ties. Like UBR, it focuses on capacity registration, raise awareness, set up building and generating awareness. It committees on birth registration and has achieved 90 per cent birth registra- raise resources. The second phase tion in all its model blocks, with many focused on the implementation of reporting 100 per cent registration. In interventions from the regional and other cases, birth registration is being national levels to the grassroots. integrated with the national immuniza-tion programme. In India, the NGO Committee of
UNICEF and Plan International formed For its part, ORGI plans to amend the a partnership and launched the second RBD Act. The proposed amendments phase of UCP in July 1999. The project are: aimed at better collaboration among all ?Simplifying the registration proce- involved with birth registration, raising dures the rate of birth registration and under-?Increase in the normal reporting standing how the system functions at period the grassroots.?Period for delayed registration without affidavit to be increased This document has reports from ?Enhancing the accountability of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, State/Central Government Delhi and Mumbai as well mentions ?Submission of Annual Report to the what Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are State Assembly/ Parliament every year doing on the UBR campaign. Each state ?Declaration of registration deficient report has focused on the campaign in States/Union Territories the districts and the overall strategy, Making special provision for case studies and has interviews from ?Registration of adopted children and the field. We have taken a more journal-street children istic view of UBR than an academic one ?Registration of deaths due to natural with the aim of making in-depth, infor-calamities mative and readable articles.?Registration of deaths on travel at
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