LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said birth registration rate in the country stands at 87 per cent.
“Less than three percent have been registered within 45 days of birth of children and the trend of delayed birth registration should be reduced,” he said this on Wednesday while speaking at a workshop at the Mukti Hall of Bidyut Bhaban here.
Birth and Death Registration Project of Local Government and UNICEF jointly organized the workshop titled “Increasing birth registration within 45 days of birth and its use to combat early marriage.”
Secretary of Cabinet Division (coordination and reform) NM Ziaur Alam and UNICEF Country Director to Bangladesh Edouard Beigbeder, among others, addressed the workshop with Local Government Division secretary Abdul Malek in the chair.
Mosharraf said birth registration rate of children must be increased within 45 days of their birth to check early marriage and access of child workers to job markets. The government has made mandatory for receiving 17 types of public service and death registration for four public services, he added.
Other speakers said Bangladesh must launch massive awareness campaign to increase birth registration rate to free the country from the curse of early marriage.
According to a report of UNICEF, the rates are still high as 66 percent of girls are married before the age of 18 and over one third of girls are married before the age of 15.
