The situation, brought about by the Covid-19 induced
lockdown that was introduced in March last year, has put parents in a dilemma
as they cannot include the affected children in most schemes that require birth
certificates.
Parents and officials told Sunday News that they have
failed to include their children in key policies such as medical aid, funeral
policies and acquiring passports, among others, due to the birth certificate
dilemma.
When the country introduced lockdown in March last year
most social services were suspended for the greater part of the year. Although
the offices were later opened, Sunday News has gathered that few people are
being served as officials seek to adhere to World Health Organisation protocols
in terms of crowd control.
In Bulawayo, registry offices in the city centre and in
high-density suburbs are reportedly serving about 20 people per day. It could
not be established how many babies are in need of birth certificates, but Mpilo
Central Hospital said it delivers between 7 000 and 10 000 births annually.
There are other hospitals and council clinics that also
have maternity wings in the city which would push the numbers of newborn babies
high. In addition, the country’s ten provinces each have a number of health
facilities with maternity wings and some mothers in remote areas reportedly
deliver from home.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation (Unesco), in 2015 alone, 540 000 babies were born in the
country. Acting Registrar General Mr Henry Machiri told Sunday News that
although he did not have the numbers at hand, there was a huge backlog of
people seeking to acquire birth certificates for their children.
“We have opened our offices for birth, death and National
Identity registrations for the public. We are inviting all parents whose
children were born during this pandemic to go and do the registrations. We are
ensuring that we are serving them within the Covid-19 regulations. We do not
want crowds at the offices, we want to ensure there is social distancing but we
are assisting them,” said Mr Machiri.
He said his office was in the process of clearing the
backlog and was not limiting numbers to 20 per station as claimed by residents
in Bulawayo.
“It’s not 20 people per day. We are ensuring that we do not
have crowds, we can serve even 500 people per day but those 500 tend to crowd
which is against Covid-19 regulations. Remember all gatherings are limited to
30 and 50 people respectively. But seeing that we do not know the actual figure
of people affected, if we limit them to 20 per day, we will not catch up,” he
said.
Justice for Children Trust programmes manager Mr John
Mhlanga said it was worrying that the effected children cannot access a lot of
benefits that come with acquiring birth certificates.
“It has also been a concern for us. We made an urgent
Chamber Application in September 2020 to the High Court to compel the
Government to open the registry office and also declare them as an essential
service provider that could operate during the lockdown. We did this because
access to a birth certificate is a Constitutional right. The moment a child
fails to access that document, it means all other rights that follow cannot be
enjoyed,” he said. Mr Mhlanga said children born during the pandemic have
failed to access other services because they do not have birth certificates.
“We have situations where children are failing to access
health care because when their parents want to include them on their medical
aid schemes, they need to produce a birth certificate but because they don’t
have, they cannot be part of the scheme. At the same time, these children
should be part of funeral insurance services and other policies of their
parents, but because they do not have birth certificates, they cannot be part
of the services,” he said.
However, Mr Machiri said while there were delays for the
children to access birth certificates, the law in Zimbabwe allows children to
acquire the document for free between zero and six years.
“If a child was born last year they are still within, even
two years from now they will not pay anything. Parents must take this
opportunity to register their children, do not wait until a child is about to
start Grade One and you want to get a birth certificate, you will be under
pressure. Life is unpredictable, deaths occur anytime, when you fail to
register a child on time there are challenges that occur besides Covid-19.
When a parent dies before acquiring a birth certificate for
their child, the department will require additional documentation and witnesses
to enable that child to be registered, but this can be avoided if registrations
are done on time,” said Mr Machiri.
He added that it was a basic human right for any child to
get a birth certificate which facilitates their entrance to school which is
also another basic human right. Disputes among parents and families, he added,
have also contributed to delays in some children accessing birth certificates.
“The disputes that we have (as parents) must not affect
children, in some instances feuding families demand payments before a child
takes their father’s surname. So, such issues affect access to birth
certificates which are basic rights. We have noted that there are physically
and mentally challenged children who do not have birth certificates, but they
have the same rights as able bodied children.
We have cases of mentally challenged people who are over 30
years of age who never got birth certificates. All children despite their
disability must be registered. We have equal rights as citizens of Zimbabwe,”
said Mr Machiri. Sunday News
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