Government to reform birth registration system
Government to reform birth registration system
P.C. Naommy, Jakarta
The government is set to employ a universal, mandatory,
continuous and free birth registration system to protect the
fundamental rights of all children.
Birth registration plays a main role in protecting children
from various forms of human rights violations, including abuse,
child labor exploitation, trafficking and illegal adoption.
"We've been preparing a new bill on the National Civil
Registration Law to promote nationwide coverage of birth
registration," said Rohadi Haryanto, director general for
population administration for the Ministry of Home Affairs, on
Tuesday.
Rohadi was speaking after witnessing the signing of a letter
of intent between the government of Japan and the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) for the finalization of a US$800,000
grant from Japan to assist UNICEF's ongoing projects on birth
registration in Indonesia.
The funds will support the development and implementation of
the new law, increase people's awareness of the importance of
birth registration and cover the cost of pilot projects in 10
districts in East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, Papua, South
Sulawesi and Java.
The draft law, which is currently being discussed by the
Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, will help people save money
and time in registering births.
According to Rohadi, under the new law, people would not be
asked for money, because registration is free. People will also
no longer have to travel to their regental capital to obtain
birth certificates for their children.
"With the implementation of an information system, they'll
just need to go to their respective subdistricts for data entry
and to obtain birth certificates," said Rohadi.
The law will also require people to have a birth certificate
to apply for an identification card.
Data from the Ministry of Women's Empowerment show that 63.8
percent of Indonesian workers had made fake ID cards in order to
secure a job.
The fact that currently 26 percent of the 90.2 million
Indonesian children have no birth certificate will make it
difficult for authorities to prevent the falsification of IDs in
the future.
UNICEF Representative to Indonesia Steven Allen said the
figure has put the country among 19 countries with the lowest
coverage of birth registration. "This puts Indonesia at the
world's bottom 10 percent," he said.
UNICEF cited the lack of understanding, awareness, legal
support and high registration cost as factors that have hindered
people from registering their babies' births.
UNICEF data show that more than 50 percent of children aged
under five in Indonesia were not registered in 2003. Some 27.7
percent of the parents failed to register their babies due to the
high cost.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, East Nusa Tenggara
has the highest number of unregistered births at a percentage of
95.4, while Yogyakarta accounts for the lowest number of
unregistered births at 2.3 percent.
Under regional autonomy, many regencies see birth registration
as a source of income.