People fall prey to middlemen during birth registration

Local government minister, and the two Dhaka city mayors have admitted the fact of people's sufferings during birth and death registration and falling prey in the hands of the middlemen due to irregularities.  

"The birth and death registration server remains down during day time. People cannot complete birth registration at the zonal offices during day time and the server remains functional at night, which forces people to handover the registration work to the middlemen," Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam said on Sunday at a programme at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre marking the Birth and Death Registration Day which falls on 6 October. 

Mayor Atiq also said that no one receives calls even on the hotline.  

Local Government Division organised the programme where it was revealed that birth registration of only 56% of the population has been completed so far. 

Mayor Atiq said that according to the law, the correction is being done within 90 days at the zonal offices. If the time exceeds, people have to go to office of the deputy commissioners or the deputy director's of the local government. 

Mayor Atiq suggested for submitting signature through e-files, introduce a birth registration system based on QR code to simplify the process and delegate the power of correction to the councilors' office of the 54 wards of Dhaka.

Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh said that they have to face the wrath of people regarding the birth and death registration.  

"People do not have any other place to complain and we cannot immediately solve many issues due to some rules and laws. It damages our image in other countries," he said.

He noted that the capacity of the birth registration server should be increased four times considering the number of registration done in a year. Investment has to be made to increase the capacity of the server for birth and death registration upto four to five years.

Chief guest of the programme LGRD Minister Tazul Islam said that the pressure of birth registration will be immense in November-February period when school admission season will start. 

"We have to solve the problem before that time. People are compelled to hand over their birth registration works to the middlemen," he said.
 
He also pledged to allocate fund for purchasing birth registration server. 

"We have been spending billions. The amount of five to seven crore is not a big deal. People spend their time for birth registration leaving their works day after day," he said.

The minister also said that the sufferings are taking place at different level and many ambassadors have complained too. 

The law should not be this complicated, he said, adding: but we should be careful that the law is not misused.

Registrar General Rashedul Hasan said that many a times, people ask question regarding the higher number of birth registration compared to the population. According to the population census, the country's population is 16 crore. But the number of birth registration is 22 crore until September this year combining the number at home and at the embassies abroad. 

He explained that the number of population got through the census is the alive ones but the birth registration number is a cumulative figure. The death registration number is not deducted from this cumulative number. Besides, there is duplication of data due to multiple birth registration, and dual entry, he added.