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Star Law Analysis
Legal identity for social inclusion
Ahamuduzzaman
The Birth and Death Registration Act, 2004
The Birth and Death Registration Act, 2004 makes the production of birth certificates mandatory for the following purposes:
- Issuing of passports
- registration
- Admission to educational institutes
- Employment in government, non-government and autonomous institutions
- Obtaining driving licences
- Inclusion into the voter's register
- Land registration and
- Any other case for which the law makes provision
Other purposes for which production of birth certificates will be necessary
The Rules made for the proper implementation of the law make the production of the birth certificate necessary also for the following purposes
- To open a bank account
- To obtain export or import licence
- To obtain gas, water and electricity connection
- To obtain tax identification number (TIN)
- To obtain contractor's licence
- To obtain sanction/approval for architectural design of buildings
- To obtain registration of vehicles
- To obtain trade licence
- To obtain national ID card.
Benefits of birth registration
Proper implementation of laws protecting human rights in matters of: Juvenile justice, Child Labour, Trafficking, Child in contact with the law, Underage marriages, Other abuses connected with lack of legal identity
Obstacles and disincentives to register
- Lack of awareness
- High illiteracy rate
- Lack of perceivable social benefits
- Lack of knowledge as to how to obtain legal identity
- Lack of proper planning and political will
- Lack of resources to cover entire population
- Easy acceptability of ad-hoc or alternate documents
- Fear of portions of the population to be identified
- A large floating population
- To delay the age of retirement
- Frequent rotation of government officials at the district level
- Weak capacity of Local Government Representatives and officials
- Lack of coordination between different Ministries
Cantonments:
Births are registered routinely at military hospitals. Costs vary at different Cantonments Boards
Laws which mention age
- The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
- The Penal Code, 1860
- The Divorce Act, 1869
- The Contract Act, 1872
- The Christian Marriage Act, 1872
- The Government Savings Banks Act, 1873
- The Oaths Act, 1873
- The Majority Act, 1875
- The Court of Wards Act, 1880
- The Vaccination Act, 1880
- The Negotiable Instrument Act, 1881
- The Guardians and Wards Act, 1890
- The Prison's Act, 1894
- The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898
- The Juvenile Smoking Act, 1919
- The Mines Act of 1923
- Bengal Borstal School Act, 1928
- The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929
- The Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act, 1933
- The Children (Pledging of Labour) Act, 1933
- The Employment of Children Act, 1938
- The Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939
- The Vagrancy Act, 1943
- The Orphanages and Widows Home Act, 1944
- The Roads Transport Workers Ordinance, 1961
- The Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, 1961
- The Plantation Labour Ordinance of 1962
- The Factories Act of 1965
- The Bangladesh Shishu Academy Ordinance, 1976
- The Paurashava Ordinance, 1977
- The Jail Code, 1864
- The Electoral Rolls Ordinance, 1982
- The Local Government (Union Parishad) Ordinance, 1983
- The Chittagong City Corporation Ordinance, 1982
- The Dhaka City Corporation Ordinance, 1983
- The Khulna City Corporation Ordinance, 1984
- The Family Courts Ordinance, 1985
- The Rajshahi City Corporation Ain, 1987
- Nari O Shishu Nirjaton Daman Ain, 2000 (The Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000)
- The Sylhet City Corporation Ain, 2001
- The Barisal City Corporation Ain, 2001
- The Acid Violence Prevention Act, 2002
- The Company Act, 1994
- The Succession Act 1925
- The Registration Act, 1908 (amended in 2004)
- The Gram Sarkar Ain, 2003
- The Bankruptcy Act, 1997.
- The Bangladesh abandoned children (special provisions) order, 1972
- The Bangladesh Boys Scouts Samity order, 1972 (PO 111 of 1972)
Incentives to register
- In some areas incentives to register includes inclusion in the EPI and immunisation programmes
- Admission into schools
Concluding note
In the concluding note, we can say that birth registration is the most easiest way to determine a person's legal identity. The total number of birth registrations all over the country is not satisfactory. The information is not accessible through internet. The percentage of birth registration is approximately 35-40 percent. Local government should be more effective in building public awareness. The government must appoint more people in the local authority for the effective implementation and rapid action of the Law of 2004. The Project director of birth and death registration project working for birth registration under the LGRD ministry have told in a seminar that the present rate of birth registration in the rural area is 3.4 percent and in the urban area 10 percent. The existing problem of birth registration is due to:
i. Manpower is not adequate.
ii. Workers are not properly trained.
iii. Materials of registration are not yet sent all over the country.
iv. Uses and benefits of birth certificates are not known to all.
v. Who will provide information was not mentioned specifically before the Act of 2004.
vi. Lack of fund
vii. Indecision of Govt. in taking long time plans and mismanagement among the ministries for preserving and sending data and information.
viii. Lack of penalty provisions (that existing is not adequate to punish) of the Law.
ix. Political uncertainty and ideological discrepancies among the political parties for taking a common stand in national interest.
x. Flow of information is not well.
xi. Data and information of a particular person is not accessible on internet easily. According to a statistical report about 4.2 million births take place each year in Bangladesh.
xii. If information is preserved and kept in central data base through computerisation, it will be easy to monitor.
xv. If computerised, it will be easy to issue certificates and there must be a central bureau as one certificate may not be issued twice.
As every data and statistics is contested so cross checking is necessary. In the present law there is no specific provisions for determining age of adults and how all the people will come within this project and birth registration will be completed within that short period. It is important to note that Upazila resource centre may be linked with this project as there is computer facility and most of the time that remains closed or free for no work.
So, birth registration is most important for all citizens for their legal identification and government should provide identity card for every individual. A person's identity card containing special ID No. will be considered as the primary evidence of his identification.
Ahamuduzzaman is Lecturer, Dept. of Law and Justice, Southeast University.
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