Government pledges no more unregistered children

One child in four is not registered at birth

Jakarta (AsiaNews) – The Indonesian government pledged to introduce free birth registration to end the anomaly in which one child in four does not legally exist and is therefore not entitled to rights under the law.

According to UNICEF, 26% of Indonesia's 90.2 million children are not registered at birth. In 2003 the proportion rose to 47% for those under 5. This represents almost 10 million unregistered children. Government figures show that the situation is even worse in some provinces. In East Nusa Tenggara (a group of islands east of Bali) for example, 95.4% of all children have not issued birth certificates.

This kind of dereliction has serious repercussions for the future adults and puts Indonesia in the unenviable group of 19 countries, mostly African, which are negligent in the matter. The result is that every year more than 50 million children worldwide are deprived of their name, identity, nationality and rights.

Without a birth certificate children's rights may be violated. Unregistered children may be abused, forced to work under age, trafficked, or illegally adopted. They would not be entitled to proper health care nor would they have the right to an education which would eventually lead to their social exclusion and marginalisation.

Whilst lack of awareness and legal aid may be some of the reasons Indonesian families do not register their children, poverty plays a major role. Over one family in four (27.7%) cannot afford the registration fee, an important source of revenue for local government, or the journey to the kabupaten or regency (district) centre to complete the registration process.

Rohadi Haryanto, director general for Population Administration in the Ministry of Home Affairs, stated that "we've been preparing a new bill on the National Civil Registration Law to promote nationwide coverage of birth registration," the Jakarta Post reported. However, thus far only 10 of Indonesia's more than 400 regencies have implemented free birth registration. Otherwise, a birth certificate costs anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000 Indonesian rupees (€ 0.50/1.50 or US$ 0.60/1.80) in a country where the annual per capita Gross National Product stands at about 7.8 million Indonesian rupees (€ 697 or US% 857)

According to the minister birth registration will be free under the new law. Parents "will just need to go to their respective sub-districts for data entry and obtain birth certificates." With a birth certificate people will eventually be able to get proper identity cards instead or resorting to buying fake papers. In fact, according to the Ministry of Women's Empowerment, 63.8% of Indonesian workers are now forced to use fake ID cards. (MR)

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