ISLAMABAD: UNICEF, in cooperation with Pakistan’s provincial governments of Sindh and Punjab, along with Telenor Pakistan, will launch a pilot mobile registration project to facilitate parents to register births of new-born in one click.
It is estimated that over 60 million children under the age of five are deprived of legal identity in Pakistan.
Sarah Coleman, child protection chief at UNICEF Pakistan, said the pilot project for mobile birth registration will launch in district Pakpattan, UC Kaliana in Punjab by the end of July and in two UCs - Gharo and Dhabe Jee in district Thatta, Sindh, by early August.
The aim of this pilot project is to grant newborns an identity right from their birth which is their fundamental right, she said.
The UNICEF child protection chief further stated that according to the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2012-13, the national birth registration rate of children under the age of five was 33.6 percent which is worrisome.
She said currently, Punjab is on top with 77.2 percent followed by Sindh with 25.1 percent, K-P with 19.8 percent, AJ and K 24 percent, Gilgit Baltistan 23.3 percent and Balochistan with only 7 percent.
“The main reason behind the low birth registration rate in Pakistan is lack of accessibility, no availability of required services and most of all tedious and lengthy document filling procedures,” she said.
In remote areas, parents travel long distances to register their child’s birth.
Also, because of predominantly low literacy rates they find it difficult to fill the registration forms, she said. “We use technology to ease birth registration so every newborn gets its fundamental right of individual identity,” she said. Internews
