Digital Birth Registration 16-10-4-1-17

There are approximately 1.1 billion people across the globe who are “invisible. They were not registered at birth and lack an official form of identification. Of the 366 million children who are unregistered in the world, around 60 million live in Pakistan. The problem of low birth registration rates in Pakistan is due to a combination of social and economic factors. In many areas, registering a birth can be difficult, in some cases nearly impossible – especially for children born at home, in remote locations, or in displacement. The ability to prove one’s identity is crucial to social, political and economic inclusion and enables greater access to basic services such as healthcare and education. It’s also a child’s passport to protection against underage labour, child marriages and trafficking. It also protects children from being treated as adults in the justice system and helps them reconnect with families in times of conflict and disaster. Typically, birth registration is a prerequisite to obtaining a birth certificate, which in Pakistan is needed for issuing national identity cards, passports and in some provinces, school enrolment. On the other hand, government also needs birth data deliver socio-economic services such as planning health care and new schools.