According to a recent report, almost 25% of children born in the last decade did not have their births registered with the Registrar of Births and Deaths. While the exact number of children varies depending on the city and the state in India, a large sections of the population that avoided the process were from rural India with several states having a 100% registration for birth certificates. The number of people registering for their birth certificates is increasing with new measures put in place to encourage people to get through by making an easy process.
Getting a birth certificate is the right of every child and people should not be denied theirs since it could lead to a lot of issues, not to mention the Government having trouble getting the rights statistics, for understanding the happenings in the country. To increase the number of people getting through the birth certificate process, they began working on eGovernance platforms to allow people to get through the process with ease. Furthermore, it was optimised to make it easy for people to use online or connect to their phones since the largest population of the country is connected to the internet through their phones. Furthermore, they received information about the process if people needed assistance or found themselves stuck at any point.
While there were a lot of people who did not like getting through the process online since they found filling out their forms and uploading documentation challenging, they could get it done at the office. The website allowed people to download their birth certificate application, along with a list of supporting documents, fill them all out and making copies of the documents that they needed, and submit it at the office. The main challenge is usually getting the letter from the hospital, mentioning the details of the birth of the child.
Similarly, the Indian Government allows people to upload information to apply for a death certificate online. The death certificate application process is a little complex since people do not apply for their certificates but do it for a close friend, relative or family member. They have to download the death certificate application from the website and fill it out. The website allows people to submit the information directly, while uploading their additional documents or print it out and hand it in at the office.
Both the birth and death certificate processes are mandatory for people, and it is the right of every person to apply for them. Other than the registration process, the website also assists people when it comes to other tasks relating to birth and death certificates. People can apply to make changes to their documents since there could be errors and typos on those documents. If they require duplicates of the same certificates, they can get those through the website as well. Other than the processes, the eGovernance system also provides people with a lot of information about the processes and creates awareness about them so people can get through them and understand how important they are.
The eGovernance process allows people to apply for documents that are their right but not necessarily mandatory like their Voter ID card or their passport. People can apply for their passports online, and they would receive the passport application and a list of the documents that they have to submit to get it done. From all the documentation processes that the Government has in place, passports and the Aadhaar cards have to be the ones that need the most documentation.
People can get through the process faster if they handle it online, uploading all their documents and having the website review them at their end. It saves them trips to the passport office, which is ideal during a pandemic. Secondly, there is one meeting where applicants have to visit the passport office and click their photographs on the spot. The process takes about a month, and if all the documentation submitted has been accurate, the applicant would have their passport mailed to them using the address that they have provided.
