CROC-Birth registration in Bangladesh

Protecting children’s rights through birth registration in Bangladesh

Andrew McGregor from UNICEF Australia recently visited an innovative birth registration project in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Over 120 million people crowd into a space smaller than Victoria, Australia. It is a very flat country, with rich green rice paddies stretching endlessly into the horizon and thousands of rickshaws plying the crowded laneways. However it is also a place of incredible hardship, being ranked 146 of 174 countries in the 2000 UNDP Human Development Index and is constantly struggling with the dangers associated with flooding, cyclones, poor nutrition and poverty.

AusAID and UNICEF Australia have combined to support a project that protects the rights of one of the most vulnerable groups in Bangladesh, the children. Bangladeshi children often bear the brunt of the harsh economic and social conditions faced by families in this struggling country. In order to make ends meet, many children become victims of exploitation, through child labour or child prostitution. Others are married at very young ages, whilst those who come before the courts are tried according to adult, rather than child, laws.

The $300 000 AusAID / UNICEF Australia project protects children by promoting child rights through a birth registration campaign in three districts, Laximpur, Kurigram and Kishoreganj. The project is expected to protect over one million children through registration and many more through creating an awareness of children’s rights within Bangladeshi communities.

As the responsible project officer for the campaign, I visited the project in June 2000. During my time in Bangladesh I visited one of the AusAID / UNICEF IDEAL schools to talk to children about their experiences. I asked the class some standard questions, including how old they were. This caused immense confusion and it became clear the children simply did not know. Currently very few children know their age and it is very hard to find out, as only 3% are estimated to be registered at birth. This conflicts with Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which states: "The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents".

Birth registration protects children’s rights in several ways. Firstly it assists in the implementation of child protection laws. There are many laws in Bangladesh that protect children from early marriages, child labour, child prostitution and youth detention, and yet they are rarely applied, as it is difficult to establish the ages of children. Magistrates, for example, regularly assume a child is 17 during sentencing, thus circumventing juvenile detention laws. Similarly the majority of girls are married illegally under the age of 18, with ceremonial staff unable to determine their ages.

Secondly, birth registration assists in planning. Apart from a census conducted every ten years, planning officials simply do not know how many children are being born in different areas, making the allocation of educational and medical resources extremely difficult. The health workers and family planning officers who have enthusiastically volunteered their time to the project have reported that registration activities have minimised drop-out rates during immunisation periods.

A third form of protection comes through children benefiting from the sensitisation of communities to the importance of child rights. The campaigns are highly visible events that attract media and the support of national and district level officials, as well as local village leaders and community health workers. All receive training in child rights and their messages permeate through communities to create a more supportive and caring social environment for children.

With everything pointing to a successful campaign in 2001, UNICEF Australia plans to extend the project to other districts in future years. Through birth registration, AusAID and UNICEF Australia are combining to create a better life for Bangladeshi children

Back to Case Studies

Click here to register for the Convention on the Rights of the Child unit.

Other One World projects:

Other Human Rights Sites:

One world,
many democracies:
Human Rights

Explore your human rights
through Internet activities

International Human Rights Day
on ABC Online

Universal Rights Network

This unit of work is a joint venture between UNICEF Australia and the Curriculum Support Directorate, NSW Department of Education and Training.