Overview - Birth Registration for all
Birth registration is a fundamental human right and an essential means of protecting a child’s right to their identity. Registering a birth serves as an effective civil mechanism that legally acknowledges a person’s existence, enables a child to possess a birth certificate, establishes the child’s family ties, and tracks life’s major milestones from birth through marriage and death. Birth registration also helps governments to track their country’s demographic statistics, health trends and differentials. Comprehensive data means more accurate planning and implementation of development policies and programs, particularly in the fields of health, education, housing, water, sanitation and employment. "Approximately 60 per cent of Indonesian children under five years of age do not have birth certificates, and half are not registered anywhere...This leads to rampant falsification of identity and age, and a risk of future exploitation." In addition to the lack of comprehensive birth registration, bureaucratic hurdles and an over-centralized system have led to public apathy towards registering children. In many cases, middlemen take advantage and profit from the civil registration mechanism. Consequently, instead of a free service people end up paying a third party anywhere from Rp100,000 to Rp800,000 (about $10 to $80) for this basic task, a tremendous financial burden for most Indonesian families. The situation further leads to rampant falsification of identity and age, and a risk of future exploitation. Meanwhile, the lack of accurate government demographic data often leads to mistaken implementation of health and education programs, among other problems. (Read about UNICEF's response for Birth Registration)
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