Birth certificates for all children up to five years of age will be distributed free of cost from April 1 till May 31 in the district.
Reviewing the birth and death records here on Tuesday, the Collector, Sigy Thomas Vaidhyan, said additional staff have been appointed to ensure the birth certificate for every infant born in 39 primary health centres in the district were given to the mother before she leaves the hospital after delivery.
The municipal officials have been asked to create a special cell for registering births and deaths at the Government hospitals. Ms. Vaidhyan asked the village administrative officers to display boards outside their offices that births and deaths would be recorded in their offices. The VAOs should be available at their offices on Fridays for this purpose.
Stating that the Government has instructed to distribute birth certificates free of cost for all children up to the age of five to enable their admissions in schools, she said panchayats, town panchayats and municipalities would distribute the certificates.
The Collector insisted that the officials included the name of the child in the birth certificates.
The village nurses, municipal sanitary inspectors have been asked to create awareness about the free certificate distribution drive.
