Millions of children in Pakistan are denied their fundamental right, birth registration. Children whose births go unregistered are unable to benefit from even minimal levels of protection against early and forced marriages, labour and employment in hazardous industries, recruitment by armed groups and illegal adoption and or/ trafficking. Without a birth certificate, such children are also at risk of being denied their right to inheritance or being treated as adults if they came in conflict with the law.
In the absence of a registered birth, it becomes difficult to help children. Furthermore, a child who is not counted is less likely to be included in development policies and planning for the provision of social services.
Pakistan, as a signatory state to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), is obliged, as per Article 7 of the convention, to undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures to register a child immediately after birth. In the 2009 concluding observations to the Pakistan periodical report, the CRC Committee notes that while many measures have been implemented by the Government of Pakistan, still more than 70 percent of children are not registered at birth, especially girls, children belonging to minority or religious groups, refugee children and children living in rural areas, especially FATA.
The number of registered births is alarmingly low in FATA. According to the latest Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, only 1 percent of children in the territory are registered at birth and have a birth certificate. A child protection policy was endorsed by the Government on January 10, 2012, in which the registration of children’s births is highlighted as a priority area. In this respect, the Government has notified an inter-departmental Working Group for birth Registration, which coordinates efforts by multiple partners to improve birth registration rates.
The Working Group initiated birth registration initiatives in two Tehsils, Yakaghund and Jamrud, but in the absence of a strategy incorporation, a clear set of methodologies and interventions for improving birth registration in the region, sustainability was an issue. Based on an initial assessment of the previous intervention, the local government department in FATA Secretariat, with the assistance of UNICEF, developed a comprehensive birth registration strategy in 2013.
However in a recent birth registration drive in January in Jamrud Tehsil, a total of 301 birth registrations took place in the first 14 days alone. The work is in progress and more latest figures are yet to come.
