The government has announced that it wants to conform to international standards with respect to birth certificates. Religion and parents’ marital status have been used to discriminate in the past.
Colombo (AsiaNews) – Sri Lanka has announced that it intends to remove sensitive information from birth certificates, including race and religion, in order to comply with international standards.
The new document will be digital, contain a QR code and a bar code, to eliminate the problem of counterfeiting.
The head of the Registrar General's Department, N. C. Vithanage, told the media that all sensitive details will not be included although they were hitherto mandatory.
According to some observers, the decision was taken following an increase in discrimination against children because of their religion and the marital status of their parents.
In particular, in some places, school authorities discriminated against minority pupils, denying Christian or Muslim children the right to an education.