Unit Committees cannot register births and deaths

Koforidua, July 8, GNA- Unit Committees (UC) cannot register births and deaths in their communities until the proposed Community Population Register Bill was passed by Parliament, the Eastern Regional Director of the Births and Deaths Registry, Mr Abdul Elijah Karim, has said.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Koforidua on Monday, he explained that it was only after the Unit Committee members had been trained under the proposed law, that they could perform such function under the Decentralisation Act.

According to Mr Karim, since the births and deaths certificates served as important landmarks in the life of every person, including issues such as parentage, citizenship, travelling documents, voting, inheritance, among others, for both the person involved and the state, the Registry had to be very circumspect before divesting its functions.

Additionally, he said the question of competence of recorders, security of documents and allowances for the Committees were among the necessary matters to be considered and said the Registry was collaborating with the staff of the Ministry of Health, especially the Community Health Nurses, to assist in performing the function in communities where it has no staff.

Mr Karim who announced the government's waiver of birth registration fee of 10,000 cedis for children under one year cited the slumping trend of registered ones in the New Juaben Municipality from 23,000 in 2000 to only 9,000 in 2002 as example for the waiver.

He hoped parents would take advantage of the waiver to register their children and stressed on families to register the death of their relations to enable the Department to compile reliable demographic data to facilitate efficient development planning by the District Assemblies and the state organs.