How Can Check The Status of Birth Certificate Application

A birth certificate is a more entrusted legal identity document that serves to establish the date, month and year of a person's birth in India. According to the Registration of Birth Act, 1969, it is compulsory to register every birth through a birth certificate application.

A person who does not have a birth certificate is not identified as a citizen of India, whereas anyone who possesses a birth certificate, is eligible for availing benefits from a range of services provided to the citizens by the government of India.

What is the purpose of birth certificate?

Obtaining a birth certificate becomes necessary for a gamut of reasons like: -

1. Gaining the right to vote
2. Professing the right to marry at the lawfully acceptable age.
3. Getting admission at school or to the Government service
4. To prove the age for insurance purposes
5. To establish parentage
6. To register in National Population Register (NPR)
7. For deals of inheritance and property rights
8. To fulfill the immigration requirements (such as acquiring a green card)
9. Obtaining an application for a passport

As well as for other identity documents issued by the government.

Every year, an estimated 26 million children are born in India. Unfortunately, out of these, around 10 million children remain unregistered.

A birth certificate is required in following events

1. If the original birth certificate gets lost.
2. If a birth certificate was never issued.
3. Newly born child

First of all, it is important to understand that who can register a birth. A birth certificate can easily be obtained, provided that the birth gets registered within 21 days from the date of birth by submitting a birth certificate application.

• In case the birth happens in a house, it is the responsibility of the head of the household to register the birth.
• A birth that occurs in a moving vehicle is to be registered by the person in charge of that vehicle.
• If a birth takes place in jail, then the jail in charge is responsible for reporting the birth.

Providing necessary documents

On the municipal level, authorities are accountable for registering births and deaths.
Firstly, registration forms are collected from the registrar's office. The medical officer is at the helm of providing the form if the child is born at the hospital.

The form needs to be filled within 21 days of birth and a fee of Rs 20 has to be submitted if the parent is registering within the stated time.

If the registration is done after the specified time, then the process will be completed only after the police verification and depositing late fee. Generally, the birth certificate is made available to the person within 7 days to 3 weeks after the submission of birth certificate application.

There are several documents that are essential for the application process: -

• Affidavit considering a person's date and time of birth.
• Photocopy of any one of the identities proofs documents of a parent such as a passport, Aadhar card, voter ID, PAN card and driving license.
• The residential certificate of the parent
• A signed letter from the authority
• The photocopy of any one of the following documents will be enough as an address proof where the birth of the child took place.

Online birth certificate application

Registration of births and issuing of birth certificates is becoming more and more advanced with the introduction of digitalization by Albeit e-governance initiatives. However, this system tends to be quite slow-paced as there are very few metropolitan cities in which this service is currently available.

Therefore, before registering for an online birth certificate application, it is important to make sure whether or not this service is available in one's city, the same can be done by signing up on the website crsorgi.gov.in.

The person is then required to enter his/her personal details. After this, he/she can register and ultimately print out the form and go to the registrar or sub-registrar in order to get it attested.

The role of local self-government

The local self-government department's e-governance initiative is responsible for validating the birth certificate online.

Tracking the current status of birth certificates

If a person applies for a birth certificate online, he/she can keep a check on the progress of the application.

• The person can look up the local self-government department websites of their locality and in case they are unable to find the website, then they can visit the National Government Service Portal from where the link for their local self-Government website will be easily accessible.
• The next step is to search for the birth certificate on the website. Once the person reaches their local self-government website, they need to find the link for birth certificate and fill in the pertinent details on at least compulsory fields and then go to the search option.

The birth certificate will be easily attainable after the person fills the details such as name, gender, date and mother's name.

It is very important that the certificates are digitized and uploaded on the website after being verified by the local self-government department officials, as written records are not available on these websites.

The online birth certificate application is very helpful to search, ingress, view and check as well as download the birth certificate after the process gets completed. The greatest advantage is that this service is available free of cost.

Therefore, the e-governance initiative by the local self-government department has been rapidly progressing to serve people's needs and enable them to verify their birth certificates online conveniently without any hassle by following some simple steps.