Digital birth registration project launched

KARACHI: To speed up the registration of children in rural areas of Sindh for safeguarding their basic rights, a digital birth registration project was launched on Friday.

The project, launched in collaboration with the local government department and United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), initially piloted in Thatta in 2015 and will be extended to Badin, Naushero Feroz, Umerkot and Tharparkar in the coming years, shared Unicef representative to Pakistan, Angela Kearney, during the launch ceremony at Pearl Continent Hotel.



The project uses innovative methods to improve birth registration rates for children, especially through the use of mobile phone technology, she added.



Birth registration is a fundamental right as it validates people's existence and identity, she said, adding that it provides an accurate record of age which can help prevent child labour and child marriages.

Pakistan is a signatory to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child and as per article 7 of the convention, is responsible to undertake legal and administrative measures for a child to be registered immediately after birth, she pointed out.

According to the Sindh Multi Indicator Cluster Survey, conducted in 2014 by the Sindh government with the technical support of Unicef, the rate of registered births for children under five is 29% in the province, she pointed out. The number of births registered in the selected five districts is particularly low, she said, adding that the rate is between 2% and 5% in Thatta, Badin and Umerkot.



"I am grateful for this opportunity to highlight birth registration as a fundamental right for all children," said Kearney. Unicef looks forward to partner with the Sindh government and [cellular company] Telenor to expand the digital birth registration pilot project across the target districts and facilitate the registration of two million unregistered children within 286 union councils (UC) in Sindh, she remarked.

Pilot project

The pilot project conducted in the UCs of Thatta, with the partnership of Unicef, Telenor and Sindh government, showed positive results, claimed Kearney. Results showed that about 94% of births were being registered in the two UCs within the first 60 days of birth in accordance with the law, she added.



Local government secretary Bakaullah Unar appreciated the pilot project and reiterated his department's commitment to ensure registrations of every newborn in the province. He urged the provincial departments, NGOs and other stakeholders to come forward and exhibit their commitment towards this issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2016.