PESHAWAR, Feb 23: After its successful launching in four districts of the province, the universal birth registration project has been extended to all the 24 districts of the NWFP with the financial and technical assistance of ‘Plan Pakistan’, an international NGO.

Briefing journalists about the project at his office on Thursday, Secretary Local Government and Rural Development Baz Muhammad Khattak said the pilot project was started in Mardan, Swabi, Abbottabad and Nowshera districts during 2001-2003 with the aim to increase birth registration to 80 per cent. Representatives of the Plan Pakistan were also present at the briefing.

Explaining salient features of the project, he said, all the union councils had been provided carbonated birth registration registers along with necessary stationary for carrying out free birth registration during the year. Furthermore, extensive print and electronic media campaign had been launched to create awareness amongst general public regarding importance of timely birth registration.

In answer to a question, he said effective steps had been taken for advocacy with all stakeholders to promote child-focussed development and birth registration.

He said to improve the standard of birth registration a computerized pilot project had been launched in Kohat district in collaboration with NGO Plan Pakistan and Nadra.

Possibility of setting up permanent birth registration committees at district and union level and regular allocation of budgets for them by local governments concerned was being looked into, he said, adding that the best performing union councils would be given funds for the development schemes at the end of the project.

According to a survey conducted in the NWFP, Baz Muhammad Khattak said, only 11.7 per cent children get registered while the rest stay un-registered until they reach the age of 18 when they are registered under the Civil Registration Act. Major reason for non-registration of children at birth was lack of awareness regarding importance and need of timely registration, he said.

He said the chief minister NWFP, on the recommendations of the Project Review Board, had already declared 2006 as “The Year of Birth Registration”. The government of NWFP would celebrate the year to accomplish the desired objectives and take major steps to make the declaration a meaningful event.—APP

Our Peshawar Bureau adds: Secretary Local Government said Pakistan had ratified United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child, under which member states were bound to register children immediately after their birth.