From the cradle to the grave

The salient features of Birth and Death Registration Act, 2004 of Bangladesh are as follows:

-- Mayors of City Corporations or any officer or commissioner authorised by them; Chairmen or administrators of Paurashavas or any officer or commissioner authorised by them; Chairmen of Union Parishads or any officer or member authorised by the government; Presidents of the Cantonment Boards or any officer authorised by them will be the Registrars for the purpose of registration of births and deaths within their respective jurisdictions. The Ambassadors or High Commissioners of Bangladesh, or any officer authorised by them, will be Registrars for the purpose of registration of births and deaths of Bangladeshis abroad.

-- The Registrar shall ensure registration of all births and deaths within his jurisdiction.

-- It shall be mandatory for the father, or mother, or guardian or any designated person to give information with respect to a newborn baby, within 45 days of birth, to the local Registrar. With respect to the death of a person, his/her son, daughter, guardian or designated person shall be bound to give information, within 30 days of death of that person, to the local Registrar.

--The local Registrar, on application by a person and on payment of the prescribed fee, shall give the applicant a certificate in the prescribed form, signed by the registrar, of having registered the birth or death.

--The law allows free registration within 2 years from the date of its effectiveness.

--The law has termed the birth certificate as a proof of one's age and identity to provide access to certain services which include passport, marriage registration, admission in educational institutions, employment in government, autonomous and private sectors, driving license, voter list and registration of land.

Let us now see whether some factors may impede the successful implementation of the law.

First, the law has made it mandatory for father or mother or guardian or designated person to give information with respect to a newborn baby within 45 days of birth to the local Registrar. Similarly, with respect to the death of a person, his/her son, daughter, guardian or designated person shall be bound to give the information, within 30 days of death of that person, to the local Registrar. The question that arises is whether, in a country where illiteracy hovers around 50%, the above mentioned persons will be interested in going to the local Registrar to give information in the prescribed manner and within the time limit.

It may be mentioned that the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 of India provides a list of persons whose duty is to give information to the Registrar to register births and deaths. Under this Act, with respect to births and deaths in a house, the head of the household or, in his absence during the period within which the birth or death has to be reported, the nearest relative of the head present in the house; with respect to births and deaths in a hospital, health centre, maternity or nursing home or other like institution, the medical officer in charge or any person authorised by him in this behalf; with respect to births and deaths in a jail, the jailor in charge; with respect to births and deaths in choultry, chattram, hostel, dharmasala, boarding-house, lodging-house, tavern, barrack, toddy shop or place of public resort the person in charge thereof; with respect to any new-born child or dead body found deserted in a public place, the head-man or other corresponding officer of the village in the case of a village and the officer in charge of the local police station elsewhere shall be duty-bound to report the births or deaths to the Registrar.

Further, in the United States the Model Law (1907) provided that it was the duty of the physician, midwife, or person acting as midwife, to register the birth. If there was no one acting in this capacity at the birth, then it devolved upon the father or mother of the child, or the householder or owner of the premises where the birth took place to report to the local Registrar the fact of such birth within ten days of its occurrence. Upon being notified of the birth, the local Registrar had the responsibility to issue a birth certificate.

In Bangladesh, unless field level health and family welfare employees are duty-bound to report births and deaths in the houses to the local Registrar; and unless the medical officer in charge or any authorised person in hospitals, clinics and maternity homes are under obligation for reporting births and deaths to the local Registrar; unless the jailor is duty-bound to report births and deaths in a jail to the local Registrar, successful implementation of the law may not be possible.

Secondly, unless the people, especially the 50 percent living below the poverty line, find some immediate benefits in reporting births, they may not co-operate with the law. Matters like passport, driving license, voter list, land registration etc. are of little or no importance to them.

A cursory look into the introduction of birth and death registration in the United States shows that it took government authorities many years to bring all of the United States into the system. Registration of births and deaths is the function of the health department of the state government. The general people supposed, "it is merely a hobby of the doctors, who want the information for their own private purposes, and that this information can only be obtained by an unjustified amount of meddling with private affairs and by a system of espionage which will cause much trouble and difficulty."

Many people had never considered a birth certificate to be of any importance until old age assistance, unemployment insurance, and other ramifications of the Social Security Act demonstrated to them that it was necessary to have this official proof of their existence.

Thirdly, the law has not specifically made any provision for the Chief Registrar to co-ordinate the activities of the Registrars, although provision has been made for the supervision and inspection of the office of the Registrar by a person authorised by the government. It is not clear how the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives will get coordinated reports, statements, recommendations etc. from a large number of Registrars spread throughout the country. The Indian Act, referred to earlier, has provided for the post of the Chief Registrar in each state. Besides, there is the Registrar-General, India, appointed by the Central Government.

Last, but not the least, the general people have a fear of the paperwork and red tape involved in dealing with the local bureaucracy. Besides, lack of easy access to a registration centre may discourage the people from registering births and deaths.

The need for registration of births and deaths can hardly be over-emphasised. It has been aptly said that the importance of registering births and deaths is not merely for civic reasons. It provides a profile of society, and serves as a continuous and permanent source of crucial statistics. For any government, a fair idea of the numbers involved would be a vital input in the task of planning and future projections, especially in the case of decentralised planning in the country. What is needed is a full-fledged campaign, in both the print and audio-visual media, to make people aware of their responsibility to get births and deaths in the family registered.

M Abdul Latif Mondal is former Secretary to the Government.