The authorities have made parents’ birth certificates mandatory for registering the birth of those born after 2001, leaving many in trouble.
Earlier, national ID card numbers of parents were sufficient to register a birth, but after the new rules came into effect on Jan 1, many parents found themselves in trouble while getting their children admitted to school. Now they must register their births first before getting their children’s.
One of these parents, popular musician Bappa Mazumder, said the authorities sought his birth certificate after he applied for his daughter’s birth certificate for school admission.
“And when I applied for my birth certificate, they wanted the numbers of my parents’ birth certificates. My parents passed away long ago and didn’t have the birth certificates,” said the 49-year-old.
Manik Lal Banik, registrar general of birth and death registration, played down the problems.
Banik said the parents must register their births first before applying online for the birth certificates of their children born after 2001 in line with the new rules, but those born before that time, such as Mazumder, can secure their own birth certificates by providing the NID numbers of their parents.
There are other issues too. Farhad Uddin, a resident of Badda who came to the Dhaka North City Corporation Zone-3 office to register their child’s birth on Thursday, said they could not apply because his birth certificate is in English, while his wife’s in Bangla.
“I don’t understand how to get on with this new system. Meanwhile, my child’s school admission deadline is ending,” he said.
If the parents’ certificates are in English, the child will get a birth certificate in English. If the parents’ certificates are in Bangla, the child’s certificate will also be in Bangla. But if the two certificates are in different languages, they won’t be able to apply for their children’s birth certificates, a city corporation worker explained.
“The parents must get the certificates in the same language. Only then they can apply for their children’s certificates. Many are facing problems for this,” the worker said.
‘Samidul’, a rickshaw-puller dwelling at Korail slum in Dhaka’s Mohakhali, said he and his wife did not have birth certificates and were asked to get the papers when they applied for their child’s birth registration for school admission.
“We submitted NID cards and copies of water bill from our landlord after much trouble. Now our registration has been done. The city corporation said our son’s registration will be done on the 28th,” he said.
Many in the education sector fear that many of the school children will not be able to get stipends because of the lack of birth certificates caused by the new rules.
The headmaster of a school in Brahmanbaria’s Sarail said only 30 percent of the around 200 students admitted to class one have got their birth certificates in the past one and a half months.
Many parents are returning from the union council offices without registering their children’s birth as they themselves do not have the certificates, he said.
Despite the allegations of sufferings, Registrar General Banik said the new rules were made to discipline birth and death registration.
“Birth certificates are required for passports, marriage registration, school admission, land registration and other important jobs. So, some new things have been included in the application to bring everyone under birth registration,” he said.
He also claimed there had been some issues on the computer servers due to excessive pressure of online application during school admission in the beginning of the year, but those have been settled now.
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