Dept starts process to issue birth certificates to orphans

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, January 23

Concerned over the future of orphans who do not have a birth certificate, the Health Department has started the process for issuing them a birth proof.

On the direction of Deputy Commissioner J Ganesan a team from the Health Department led by civil surgeon Jitender Singh Garewal visited Mission for the Desperate and Destitute (MDD) Bal Bhawan at Phoosgarh outside Karnal, and examined the orphans to ascertain their age, so that they could verify their age and issue them the birth certificate.

“A board of doctors determines the age of the child through bone density or the number of teeth and accordingly the birth certificate is issued to them. For this I have asked the management of the orphanage to produce any document related to their birth or place where the child was born and accordingly we match the tentative date with the one determined by the doctors,” the civil surgeon said.

The health officials have asked the management to submit the school admission details or AADHAR card information of orphans, which would help them to make the final conclusion of the birth certificates, he added.

Later entry in the birth certificate process or adopted children process for birth certificate would be followed, the civil surgeon further stated.

As per sources there are four orphanages in the district that are home to nearly 400 children, out of which 95 children have no record of their birth. “Orphans too have a right to be successful and the issue of birth certificate should not be a hurdle in their success. I have directed the concerned officials to determine their age for issuing them the birth certificates,” said Ganesan.

“Confederation of Non-Governmental Child Care Institutions had handed over a memorandum to me in this regard. As, it is a serious issue and concerned with the future of innocent children, who have been neglected by their own, so I have directed the concerned officials to expedite the process of issuing them the birth certificate through proper verification,” the DC added.

Earlier, PR Nath, general secretary of Confederation of Non-Governmental Child Care Institutions had tried his best and raised this issue at several platforms as several children were deprived to get admission in schools.

The Tribune has brought this issue to the knowledge of the administration in the edition published on December 30 with the headline ‘No birth certificate, school admission a struggle for orphans in Karnal’ and highlighted this social cause for the deprived orphans living in various orphanages.