No baby count in Cox’s Bazar in 4yrs
"The people suffered a lot and were very angry. They could not get their children admitted to school, apply for scholarships, and even faced problems while getting remarried."
In 2017, a month after the Rohingya refugee influx, the Cox's Bazar district administration suspended birth registration in the area.
The decision was made to prevent Rohingya babies and children from obtaining the primary certification required for citizenship, said the local administration. The move affected four municipalities and 71 unions of the district as locals were denied what is the very basic right of every Bangladeshi citizen.
In Bangladesh, birth registration is mandatory within 45 days of a birth.
Two years later, in November 2019, the High Court ordered the district administration to resume issuing birth certificates. But a recent study by ACAPS (The Assessment Capacities Project) published on August 3 found that although four municipalities in Cox's Bazar, Chakaria, Maheskhali and Teknaf have resumed birth registration, only 12 of the 71 union parishads were following the HC order.
ACAPS is a nonprofit project overseen by a consortium of three organisations, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children and Mercy Corps.
As a result, there is no confirmed information on how many Bangladeshi babies were born in the whole of Cox's Bazar in the last four years.
At the time of the High Court order, the government and the UNHCR had begun the biometric registration of all Rohingya refugees, including babies born in the camps in the district, according to the Joint Response Plan of 2020.
But on the other hand, the host community waited to get the basic identify document required to prove Bangladeshi citizenship.
The ACAPS report did not list the unions where birth registration has not resumed.
But Palongkhali union of Ukhiya upazila is one such union. This is where Kutupalong, the world's largest refugee camp, is located, said local officials.
"Birth registration has remained suspended in our union for four years," said Md Gofuruddin Chowdhury, chairman of the local union parishad. "I have not been asked to resume the birth registrations yet."
Approximately, 50,000 Bangladeshi nationals reside in Palongkhali.
"The relevant law says that you can get a birth certificate from any union -- but the sad thing is that there is a different law in my union," lamented the chairman. "Locals are being deprived of their rights."
There is a logistical reason behind this too -- the union parishad administration is currently not able to use its building since it is being used for security purposes, said Gofuruddin.
"I cannot sit in my own office. I would have used my own house as an office, but it lies behind a checkpoint, so the people I serve cannot go there freely," said the chairman.
ACAPS's report stated, "The three-year suspension [of birth registration] has reportedly negatively affected the social cohesion between the host and the refugee communities."
Meanwhile, the citizens are being charged a late fee of Tk 500 for the "late registration" even though the birth registration was suspended for no fault of their own.
Nurul Islam Sikder, the union chairperson of Chakmarkul union in Ramu upazila, said it has only been two or three months since birth registration began in his union.
"The people suffered a lot and were very angry. The people could not get their children admitted to school, apply for scholarships and even faced problems while getting married," said Nurul.
But why had they only just begun the birth registration process when the High Court order was made in 2019?
"We started taking in applications when the office of the upazila nirbahi officer and the deputy commissioner asked us to," he said.
The resumption of birth registration, however, did not come without caveats. Multiple union parishad chairpersons from Cox's Bazar spoke about how the residents were being asked to provide multiple layers of additional documents to prove their residency, many of which they do not have.
The ACAPS report stated, "Before the suspension, applications were submitted to a registrar who knew all the residents in the area, and the reference process did not take long. When registration services resumed in 2020, new committees were formed under the registrar at the district and sub-district levels to help complete all birth registration applications."
For unions, the registrar is the UP chairman.
"Around 27 or 28 types of documents need to be provided for the registration," said Chowdhury of Palongkhali.
The parent's national identity and birth registration cards are also being required when registering the birth of a baby.
The daughter of Taher Mahmud, a 40-year-old NGO worker, was born 10 months ago, but he is yet to get a birth registration certificate for her.
"I had applied when my daughter was 41 days old. I don't know when I will get it. They wanted my NID card, my wife's NID card, and our parents' birth certificates. I could not give them my parents' certificates," said Mahmud.
"In addition, my birth certificate is not digitised. I had to file an application to have mine digitised. Once mine is digitised, they will consider my daughter's application," said Taher.
By digitisation, he was talking about the Online Birth Registration System, which was launched in 2010.
Aziz Uddin, the UP chairman of Baharchhora union, said that if the parents do not have their birth registration, then their children cannot get it either.
Tipu Sultan, the upazila parishad chairperson of Jhilongja union, described what happens when the parents do not have all the relevant documentations. "I have to personally know them. If I know you I will be able to help you. If I don't know you I cannot help you."
The ACAPS report and the UP chairmen interviewed said that with birth registrations largely been suspended for nearly four years, the relevant committees are facing a long backlog of applications.
"The birth registration process had restarted a few months ago but then was temporarily halted while the UNO was being changed. It will start again soon from next month," said Sultan. "There are at least 1,000 applications in the queue."
His union has 70,000 local residents.
Meanwhile, Aziz Uddin said that it would take six more months to just verify the number of applications they have to deal with, and require a further one to two years to completely streamline the system.