Birth registration process must be upgraded as soon as possible
12 November 2022
The two Dhaka mayors recently expressed their disappointment over the mismanagement by the local government in issuing birth and death registration certificates. It is their duty to issue certificates, and their disappointment means little to us.
Due to the poor capacity of the registration server, people are going to brokers to get the work done. When people come to the regional office of the city corporation, the registration server always malfunctions due to its lack of capacity. That is why they have to go to brokers to get the work done during nighttime.
The workload is higher from December to February, when even phone calls are not received on the hotlines. One has to go to the district administration office for corrections in birth registration after 90 days. Stressing the need for making the process easier, DNCC and DSCC mayors reiterated that the government will have to authorise 10 zonal offices and city corporation councillors in this regard. The sooner it is done the better.
However, the capacity of the registration server will have to be increased by four to five times. Only then the process will be smooth for city residents. Mentioning the budget crisis, the DSCC mayor said it was not right to allocate so little for this purpose while we spent around Tk 700 crore for the census.
The technical glitch that made parents approach for birth registration is disappointing indeed. Still, the present government for the past one decade has been emphasising for digitisation of every public service.
As the birth registration has been mandatory for school admission, passport, vaccination and aggregate statistical data, the system needs to be upgraded and server capacity should be multifold.
Millions is being stolen from banks, political and economic clouts embezzle millions, the nation wastes billions in excuse of cost overrun, pays billions for quick rentals without any output, purchases thousands of EVM expanding billions of money, it is very worrying that a basic service is hampered in the country for few sum.
