The Hindu : Birth, death certificates now in no time

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 28, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Birth, death certificates now in no time

By J.S. Ifthekhar

HYDERABAD Nov. 27. Birth and death may pose a problem, but not its certification. Now one can get a certificate of birth or death in a jiffy. No more running around hospitals and MCH offices.

In a trailblazing move, the MCH has decided to replace the manual process of registration of births and death with online registration. This, in effect, means one can obtain a certificate soon after a birth or death takes place.

The "anytime anywhere concept'' is possible with the civic body going for Internet-based online registration system. All the hospitals - both in the Government and private sector - are required to switch over to the new system. All that the hospital authorities are expected to do is to log on to the service by clicking the hospital registration link and key in the data. The online registration system, which saves both time and money, will be commissioned next week.

There are nearly 469 medical institutions within the MCH limits. As per the law, it is mandatory to register every birth and death that takes place in the government hospitals, private nursing homes or in residences. On an average, 1,13,718 live births take place in a year and 718 still births while the average number of deaths is 27,340 a year. On any given day, an average of 333 birth and 75 deaths are registered. The MCH has so far computerised 3.92 lakh births and 1.11 lakh deaths from 1997 onwards. Efforts are on to computerise data from 1987 to 1996.

According to Rajendra Nimje, Additional Commissioner, Finance, at present hospitals are furnishing the data for registration at the respective Sub Registrar offices within 21 days from the date of birth and death. For registration after 21 days, a late fee of Rs. 2 is being collected. Manual registration is now being done at 7 MCH circles covering 52 sanitary wards. This is in addition to four registration centres attached to the government hospitals.

``With the introduction of online registration, the 21-day period now being taken for manual registration will be reduced to just one day. The hospitals will be sending the data immediately and it will be possible to issue a certificate the same day'', Mr. Nimje said.

He said separate User ID and password would be given to each medical institution. The hospitals were free to adopt any password of their choice for further security. Mr. Nimje ruled out the possibility of anyone tampering with the data as the MCH had taken enough care while designing the system. Moreover, the health assistants and AMOHs would also carry out verification of the data.

Hospitals have to register themselves with MCH through the website www.ourmch.com in order to register births and deaths. They can send the data online either from their own offices or use a public Internet kiosk. The system is totally transparent. The Corporation will be soon launching a campaign to create awareness about the new system.

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