A padastrian on the way to online Birth Registration.

Experience of BANGLADESH

AKM SAIFUL ISLAM CHOWDHURYProject Director (Additional Secretary)

Birth & Death Registration Project.Website: br.lgd.gov.bd

Email: saislach@gmail.com

BACKGROUND:

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We have a long history of Birth registration. Colonial British rulerenacted the Birth and Death Registration Act, 1873 in undividedBengal of the then British India.

It was an unsuccessful

practice of 131 years; as

only 8% people got

registered in Bangladesh

till 2004.

The Birth and Death Registration Act, 2004

• Government of Bangladesh enacted a new birth registration act “the Birth and Death Registration Act, 2004”.

• (2) Act came into force from 3 July 2006.

• (3) There are 5 rules to support the Act.

Predominance of the law

Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law, after this act comes into force, birth or death of any person shall have to be registered in accordance with the provisions of this act.

REGISTRARS

Mayor City Corporation Mayor

Municipality

Chairman Union Parishad

Bangladesh Ambassador

Cantonment Executive

Officer

Registrars

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For the purpose of birth and death registration, not more than one person can discharge duties as the Registrar in any single area;

In the case of the person born, died or resided permanently within the jurisdiction of …

Mayors, Ambassador and CEO are empowered to delegate their power to Councilors or officers under him/her.

In absence of UP Chairman Government is authorised to appoint an UP member or officer as registrar.

Registration

(1) The Registrar shall record births and deaths of all the persons in the register irrespective of race, religion, caste, clan or sex;

(2) For the purpose of registration of the birth and death of any person, information should be submitted to the registrar within 45 days of occurrence through online or in manual form.

Power of Registrar

• For the necessity of verifying the authenticity of information concerning the registration of any person, the Registrar can make inquiry by himself or by anybody else empowered by him;

• For the interest of inquiry the Registrar or person empowered by him can issue notice upon any person for giving evidence.

Appointment of Registrar General:

The Government , with a view to fulfill the purpose of this Act, may appoint a Registrar general and necessary number of officers and staff and terms of their services shall be determined by the Government.

Person liable for giving information on Births and Deaths

• Father• Mother• Guardian• Person himself after 18 years• Specified person

In case of birth

registration

• Son• Daughter• Guardian• Specified person

In case of Death

Person shall be liable to submit information to the Registrar within 45 (forty five) days’ of the occurrence

Please register my death, it is your duty

to show your last respect to me.

Giving name of the child

• Name of the child should be given before birth registration;

• Provided that birth of any child may be registered, if the child is not given any name and in that case, his name should be submitted within the next 45(forty five) days of registration.

Basic fields for Birth and Death Registration

• Name: Full name.• Date of birth: According to Gregorian calendar in

the format of dd-mm-yyyy. • Place of birth: Including the name of district. • Gender: male/female. • Mother's Name and Nationality: Full name, no

need to mention Mrs., Late, or any designation. • Father's Name and Nationality: Full name, no

need to mention Mr., Late, or any designation. • Permanent Address: Generally ancestral address

or where lives for more than three years. 05/01/2023 13

How to create BRN

• RMO 1 for rural Union Parishad, 2 for Municipality, 3 for urban Union Parishad,

5 for Cantonment, 9 for City Corporation and 0 for Embassy.

• B. Upazila Code for Union Parishad, Municipality Code, City Corporation Code, Cantonment Code and Embassy Code.

• C. Union Parishad Code for Union Parishad, Ward Code for Municipality/ City

Corporation/ Cantonment and Consulate code for Embassy.

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Sequential number CB RMO

District Code

Year of birth

#

A 17 digits unique number as BRN is allocated for every person as shown below:

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #Geo Code

Death Registration

In case of death registration additional information like date of death, place of death, name of spouse (if applicable) and cause of death are needed.

Delayed Registration

If information on birth or death is not sent to the Registrar within 45 days can be registered later on within the prescribed process and subject to the payment of fees after 2 years of occurrence.

Supervision and Inspection

Any person empowered by the Government, on this behalf, may supervise and inspect the office of the Registrar, register and all activities relating to the registration.

Reporting

The Government, if necessary, may call for information relating to the registration or report thereof from the Registrar at any time and the Registrar shall be bound to provide that.

Reporting channel

City Corporation

Union Parishad

Municipality

Embassy

Cantonment Board

Reporting period Reporting point

Upazila Nirbahi Officer

Deputy Commissioner

PD, Birth Registration

Registrar offices

Quarterly

Half yearly

Evidentiary Value of Birth or Death Certificate

• (1) As the proof of the information relating to the age, birth and death of any person before any Office or Court or School- College or Government and Non-Government Organizations, Birth or Death Registration Certificate given under this Act shall be deemed to be admissible as evidence.

• (2) All the files and registers relating to the registration shall be deemed to be the Public Document in the meaning as the expression ‘Public Document’ has been used to mean in The Evidence Act, 1872(Act I of 1872) .

• (3) Notwithstanding anything in any other law, the Birth Certificate as a proof of age should be used in the following cases , such as :─

The Birth Certificate as a proof of age should be used in the following cases

Issuance of Passport√

Registration of Marriage

√Admission into the Academic

Institutions

√Appointment in

any JobIssuance of Driving License

Preparation of

√

Issuance of Passport

Land Registration

√National ID card

√

Any others, which govt may fixed by Rules.

The Death Certificate as a proof of death should be used in the following cases

• Getting succession certificate;• Getting family pension;• Claim of the Life Insurance of the deceased

person;• Getting mutation and division of holding;• Any other matter specified by the rule.

Penalty (1) Any person violating the provision of this act or the rule made there under

shall be punished with fine not exceeding Taka 5000.00(five thousand). (2) Notwithstanding anything contained in the sub-section (1), if any person, for

the purpose of birth or death registration, gives false information or gives any such written statement or declaration, which he knows or believes to be false, then that person shall be punished with a fine not exceeding Taka 5000.00(five thousand) or with simple imprisonment not exceeding 1(one) year or with both.

(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in the sub-section (1), if any Registrar registers birth or death , despite his knowledge about the false information, written statement or declaration mentioned under sub-section (2), then the concerned Registrar shall be punished with a fine not exceeding Taka 5000.00(five thousand) or with simple imprisonment of not exceeding 1(one) year or with both, if does not succeed to prove that that offence has been committed beyond his knowledge or he tried to stop the said offence to the best of his ability.

Situation of BR

162.50 million births and 6.89 million death have been registered till December 2013 - out of these, nearing 110 million birth records have been registered in online BRIS till today. (To observe the real time data please visit website: br.lgd.gov.bd>Real time BR data http://www.paskan.com/br/bd/dial)

Progress of online Birth Registration

Total Number

of Registrar Offices

Online Births registered as a percentage of the population to have been completed (as of May 31, 2014)

100% 90%+ 80%+ 70%+ 60%+ 50%+ 40%+ 30%+ 20%+ 10%+ 1%+ >1% 0

4996 2172 508 271 233 203 202 180 165 217 262 444 105 34

% of achieve

ment43.47 10.17 5.42 4.66 4.06 4.04 3.60 3.30 4.34 5.24 8.89 2.10 0.68

Total Number of Registration offices in country: 4996Union Parishad: 4545Municipality: 312City Corporation: 124 under 11 City CorporationCantonment Board: 15

Situation of Birth Registration for Children

• National plan to improve civil registration and vital statistics system includes accelerating registration of children within 45 days of their birth as one of priority areas and fully enforced coordination between registration and immunization/ health program is identified as the best approach.

• The rate of registration of children under the age of five increased from 9.8 percent in 2006 to 31 percent in 2011.

• Rough estimate of 2.8 million children were born between January and December 2013 and only 39,759 were registered within 45 days of birth - this is only 1.42% of expected births.

• 14,697 and 22,076 birth records have been registered with in 45 days of birth from 1 Jan to 31 May in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Registrar Offices with Good PracticesThough the overall scenario of BR within 45 days of birth is not up to the mark, some registrar offices are doing very well. The list of some registrar offices that are doing good are shown below:

Sl. District Registrar OfficePopulation

as per Census-

2011

Estimated New Births

in 2013(Pop*1.79%)

Birth registered within 45 days of birth in 2013

%

1 Dinajpur Parbatipur Paurasava 29,143 522 424 81.282 Magura Babukhali 25,751 461 268 58.143 Barguna Patharghata 28,491 510 282 55.3004 Dhaka Dhaka Cantonment 19,647 352 182 51.755 Magura Beroil Polita 20,186 361 142 39.306 Lalmonirhat Mahishkhocha 25,366 454 145 31.937 Kishoreganj Bhairab Municipality 118,992 2130 644 30.248 Natore Lakshmipur Kholabaria 29,134 521 116 22.249 Chapainababganj Chapai Municipality 180,371 3229 667 20.66

10 Sunamganj Shimulbak 29,147 522 105 20.1311 Sunamganj Joykalas 36,836 659 118 17.9012 Naogaon Naogaon Paurasava 150,549 2695 292 10.84

Experience gathered from registrar office in Bhairab Municipality

Bhairab Municipality is one of the good registrar offices which entered 644 BR data in 2013 within 45 days of birth which is 30.24 per cent of estimated birth.

Project Director visited the registrar office of Bhairab Municipality on 2 September 2013. Staff there were not aware of BR within 45 days of birth. Municipality completed 100% birth registration but was reluctant to registrar within the given period. After discussion with PD, Bhairab Municipality started and by number it is second in the list just after end of the year.

Key to Success• In Municipality, health workers (HW) are also responsible

for birth registration.• HW prepares pregnant mothers’ list and frequently visited

the would be mothers.• In between delivery and first date of immunization under

EPI, HW completed the birth registration application and sent to the Sanitary Inspector who is working as an Authorized Person for birth registration under the Mayor.

• To avoid any missing births, HW entered the BRN on EPI card at the time of first date of immunization.

• In case of any missing births, HW facilitated parents to submit BR application.

Limitations• Until now, many people in our country do not know the

importance of a Birth Certificate in their lives.

• Political persons and so called white collar people are not interested to register within 45 days of birth.

• Parents like to wait till their child gets admitted in school.

• Teachers change the date of birth at the time of enrolment in school.

How to ensure birth registration within 45 days of birth?

• EPI workers shall verify the BR certificate and write the BR# on EPI register and card. In case of use of IT, EPI workers can collect all information like name, date of birth, gender, parents’ names, address by using the BRN.

• If a baby is brought to EPI point without BR certificate, HW will help the parents to submit BR application to the Registrar Office and collect BRC before second doze of immunization.

The Way Forward• Continue strengthening capacity of birth and death

registration units

• Awareness raising of parents and communities on birth registration within 45 days of child birth

• Systematic coordination between Health (EPI and hospitals) and birth and death registration sectors in facilitating birth registration of newborn children

• Use of online birth registration application

Allow me to grow up within safety and honesty.Please don’t manipulate my age.