We need to spread awareness and incite people to get birth registrations done, and also need to make sure that we reach 100 per cent mark in Madhya Pradesh,” Raghavji said while speaking at the launch of a five-year roadmap for birth registration at a workshop held in Bhopal by the Department of Economic and Statistics in partnership with UNICEF office of Madhya Pradesh.
“We need authentic information on people for better planning.” He added that when other States can register at 100 per cent, then Madhya Pradesh can too.
Tania Goldner — Chief of UNICEF office of Madhya Pradesh said that birth registration is the right of every child. She said that State of Madhya Pradesh has taken positive steps in this direction and it has a roadmap in place. Unregistered children are not counted in official documents and are likely to get less access to services like education, health, hence being vulnerable to trafficking and labour.
“For decreasing maternal mortality ratio and infant mortality rate, planning is important for which we need accurate data,” she further added. Sachin Sinha, Director of Census said that registration in Madhya Pradesh has improvised, but it needs to reach the 100 per cent mark which southern States have already achieved.
Use of IT can help in this direction. He further added that Madhya Pradesh has 78 per cent birth registration as compared to India’s, which is at 76 per cent.