Visakhapatnam: In Kothuru village, located in the Patuchennuru Panchayat of Saluru Mandal in the Parvathipuram Manyam district, a pressing issue affects many tribal children. Shirisha, born to Pusuru Lacchaya and Parvathi, cannot attend school because she lacks a birth certificate. She was born at home, not in a hospital, which has led to this problem.
This situation is common among children in the area, including others like Sangeeta and Joha. Unfortunately, politicians and local leaders rarely take steps to resolve these issues.
Without birth certificates, children cannot get Aadhaar cards, which are necessary for school enrollment and accessing government services. This problem extends to the Alluri Sitarama Raju district, where a circular from former district collector Sumit Kumar reported that 12,476 boys and girls across 22 mandals are still waiting for their birth certificates as of September 26, 2023.
Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) living in remote areas face additional challenges. Rules meant for urban and plain regions make it harder for these families to secure birth certificates. Children often miss out due to home births or because their parents did not apply for the certificates within the one-year timeframe, even if they were born in hospitals. Social activist PS Ajay Kumar highlighted that middlemen are exploiting these marginalized communities by charging notarization fees. “Many incidents show that middlemen are taking advantage of the tribals,” he stated.
Ajay Kumar suggests changes to the guidelines for issuing birth certificates, advocating for exemptions for tribal families from certain state requirements. He believes that the education and tribal welfare departments should work together to tackle this issue. He recommends that doctors at Primary Health Care (PHC) centers be allowed to provide age determination certificates without needing affidavits from tribal parents. Additionally, he argues that adivasis should not have to provide notarized affidavits.
In response to a query from the Deccan Chronicle, Information Technology and Human Resources Minister Nara Lokesh stated, “I aim to start a specialized effort to tackle this issue through real-time governance. We are already working on enabling the acquisition of birth certificates via WhatsApp. Our approach focuses on a government-to-citizen strategy.” This initiative includes plans to involve employees from the Secretariat, the Tehsildar Office, and the RDO Office.
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