PESHAWAR, Jan 3: Scope of the birth registration pilot project may be extended to seven more districts of the NWFP and an agency of Fata, according to official sources.

They said that in view of the 96 per cent growth in the rate of birth registration in the project districts, including Mardan, Swabi, Nowshera and Abbottabad, the NWFP government wanted an extension of the plan to three other districts of the province and an agency of the adjoining Fata.

Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, the sources said, had recently asked the pilot project’s executing agencies— NWFP Local Government and rural Development Department and Plan Pakistan, an NGO— to extend the project to Dera Ismail Khan, Swat and Kohat and South Waziristan agency in Fata.

Apart from the government’s willingness to extend the plan to three more districts and an agency of Fata, Unicef has shown interest in launching the project in four other districts— Bannu, Hangu, Haripur and Mansehra.

“Unicef,” said a senior government functionary,”has also shown its readiness to launch this project in four other districts with the help of the local government department and the NGO”.

Traditionally, according to official data, the NWFP’s birth registration percentage stands between 10 and 20 per cent. This also includes a large number of grown-up people who get themselves registered for obtaining identity cards and passports.

The official sources said the registration ratio in Mardan had gone up to 64 per cent, 60 per cent in Swabi district, 79 per cent in Nowshera district and 75 per cent in Abbottabad district.

During Jan-Sept 2002, over 21,100 births in Mardan were registered out of the total 32,625; in Swabi 17,000 of 28,672; in Nowshera 20,765 of 26,220; and in Abbottabad 18,347 of 24,400 births were registered with the authorities.