Health and Home Affairs Ministries Integrate Systems to Digitise Birth Certificate Issuance
The government has integrated SATUSEHAT with the Population Administration Information System (SIAK) to facilitate the issuance of birth certificates for newborns, family cards, and maternal and child health cards digitally.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said in Jakarta on Tuesday that the integration, carried out together with the Ministry of Home Affairs, was a response to difficulties in counting newborn babies due to differing data between agencies.
“The immunisation team, the maternal and child birth team, and the stunting team all have different data. I am also confused about how many babies were born. Not to mention when compared with the KPU,” he said.
He expressed hope that with this integrated system, it will be more practical to issue birth certificates for around 13,000 newborn babies every day, or around 4.8 million newborn babies every year.
Going forward, Budi said, SATUSEHAT will also be integrated with data and systems at the Ministry of Religious Affairs for death registration, the Ministry of Social Affairs for data on contribution assistance recipients, and BPJS Kesehatan for health insurance.
On the same occasion, Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian said the move is in line with the policy direction of President Prabowo Subianto, namely government digitalisation, electronic-based government, and the use of information technology.
Tito said population data is the most dynamic data, because every minute there are births, deaths, moves, marriages, divorces, and so on. This data, Tito said, is compiled by the Civil Registration Service (Dukcapil) in 514 regencies and cities.
He also appreciated Health Minister Budi’s idea because the integration simplifies the recording and issuance of birth certificates, so that the public does not need to go back and forth to process documents while also preventing illegal levies. The certificate is handed over directly by the health facility where the baby was born, and can be a digital document sent by email to the parents or in printed form.
“This really helps the public. Just imagine in the past. People of our generation. Our parents when we were born. Our parents had to go door to door. Ask for the RT’s signature. Ask for the signature later. The hamlet head. The village head. The person was not even there,” he said.
As an effort to introduce the facility throughout Indonesia, his ministry will also issue a circular requiring village heads to report births that occur outside health facilities so that the baby can immediately be issued a birth certificate.