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The offline process of applying for a birth certificate
While the Government has worked on creating an online system for applying for a birth certificate, most of the people going through the process were not necessarily tech-savvy. This is one of the main reasons why they prefer travelling to the office and applying for a birth certificate application.
If the applicant resides in a rural village, they have to apply for the birth certificate through the Panchayat but if they are from an urban city, the Municipal Corporation coordinates it. There they have to fill out all their application forms and provide the additional documents as well. The office will coordinate with the right departments and verify the information provided and accordingly give them the birth certificate in a couple of days which sometimes stretches on to a week.
There are specific rules about the registration process, for instance, if the child is born at a hospital, the Medical Officer in charge issues a letter that will have to be submitted when applying for a birth certificate.
Some details about the birth certificate registration process
In 2007, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Delhi and Puducherry recorded 100% birth registration. Although this was more than a decade back, the States are still working well and have a good reputation and high registrations.
While others did not come close, Maharashtra recorded nearly 92% of births, Goa, 97.9%, Gujarat, 97.8%, West Bengal, 97%, Sikkim, 93.9%, Karnataka, 92%, and Haryana 91.6%.
The online process of obtaining a birth certificate
Multiple websites assist with the application process for a birth certificate. While they do come in handy, they do not provide the birth certificate themselves but coordinate with the Registrar of Births and Deaths and have one sent over.
Applicants interested in applying for and receiving their birth certificate have to get in touch with them and create an account on the website which can be used for all coordination between the Registrar, not just for the registration. It allows people to apply for new copies of their birth certificates and even make changes to them if there were typos or errors.
Coordinating with the website is quite similar to handling the process offline with the only difference being that it is done, at the convenience of the applicant. They have to fill out the same forms and upload the same documents. The only difference is that they don’t have to be carried to the office but can be scanned and sent to the website that handles the verification process. This reduces the number of people at the Registrar, allowing for the faster processing of all the documents and shorter queues. Furthermore, the website posts the birth certificate home or has an option of collecting it at their office.
The unfortunate part about the registration process is that it can only be done in the State and city where the birth took place, which quite often needs people to travel back hence using the website seems like a way better option.
