Registering birth a big hurdle indeed!

Abul Hasnat thought it might take two hours to change the birth certificates of his three children from English to Bangla after he applied online from a computer service shop at Mohakhali in the city. He had no idea what was waiting for him, reports bdnews24.com.

When he visited the city corporation office for the certificate, the officials said that his applications were not up. So he returned to the shop and the computer operator showed him they were filled in and submitted to Birth and Death Registrar's Office properly.

As he returned to the regional office, he learnt that the server was down. Finally, after a long wait, the officials at the regional office found his applications, but asked him to go to the deputy commissioner's office. If a citizen fails to take the other version within 90 days from getting one, they must apply to the office of the deputy commissioner or Upazila chief executive (UNO), according to the rules.

After he went to the DC's office, Hasnat was told that the regional office had not forwarded the applications correctly. "I went to the DC office three times. Sometimes their system did not receive the input, some other times the server was down," he said.

Local Government and Rural Development Minister Md Tazul Islam said this was the first time he heard that birth certificates have been issued in one language. "It shouldn't happen again," he said, adding that he will notify all union councils and city corporations about the matter.

Like Hasnat, millions of people across the country face trouble in the birth registration process.

Many of them have handwritten birth certificates issued a decade ago and their information now do not match the data on the government website.

Currently, 17-digit registration numbers are required, but many have fewer digits on their birth certificates, so their data are not on the website.

Although the process of registering a birth is somehow easier, people have to run around offices in the Upazilas or districts for corrections. Even public representatives have questioned the process, as they are not entitled to do any correction to birth registration, when they are allowed to issue it.

Bangladeshis face trouble mostly when they try to correct the mistakes like wrong name, address, parents' name or gender on the birth certificate or when they seek the certificate in another language.

The office of the registrar general said it received at least 12 million applications for correction of birth certificates as of now. As many as 7.5 million of those were filed in 2021. In total, more than 4.3 million applications are pending across the country.

Mohammad Abu Bakar Siddique, a resident of Lalbagh in Old Dhaka, has found it quite complicated while correcting his name in the birth certificates of his children. His name has Mohammad as first name in his birth certificate, while the children have their father's name starting with Md, the abbreviated form of Mohammad, in their certificates. This creates confusion in many places and therefore, Abu Bakar wanted to correct it. As it would mean more hassles to change the children's certificate, Abu Bakar decided to edit the name in his one. But he was not spared from trouble.

It took him a month to finish the task and he faced "mental issues" in the process.

Like Hasnat, the regional office sent him to the DC office. The staff there asked for a notary and other documents. "Why should I run to the DC office to correct a mistake? The officers in the regional office are there, councillors are there, and they can resolve the issue."

Since January 2020, the regional offices can no longer do any correction to the birth registration as the edit option for them was closed, said an official at Dhaka South City Corporation Zone 3. "We're compelled to send people to the DC office," said the official. He requested anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Birth and death registration is the responsibility of a union council chairman, said Wadud Mahmud, chairman of Satgram Union Council in Narayanganj's Araihajar. In that case, they should be allowed to do any correction to it, he said.

"People are suffering as they have to go to the Upazila level for any correction to their birth registration. It costs them time and money. While everything is being decentralised, there is no point in giving this responsibility to the Upazila-level administration."

Many schools require online birth certificates for admission, and to get a certificate for a child, parents need to register their own births first.

A birth certificate is required for many other things, such as the coronavirus vaccine.

The government introduced a new website, https://bris.gov.bd, and server in November 2011 to register birth and deaths, which became operational on January 01, 2012.

The website opened in 2012 was operational until 2020. A new website https://bdris.gov.bd was introduced in January 2021.

Two of those three were registered in 2008 and the other in 2003. At least two of the four missing birth registrations had a 17-digit number and the other two had 16 digits.

The new website is not showing information of the birth certificates bearing a number less than 17 digits, said the office of registrar general. Also, information on some handwritten certificates is yet to be uploaded to the server. The number of such birth certificates could be more than 10 million, the office said.