Auto-approval for name addition of child up to 4 years of age: MCD

As per an order issued by the officer in-charge of vital statistics on October 10, the parent or guardian of a child up to the age of four can apply to add their ward’s name on the birth certificate on the MCD website.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has decided to automatically approve the addition of the name of a child on his or her birth certificate up to the age of four.

The MCD Civic Centre Building in New Delhi. (HT File)

As per an order issued by the officer in-charge of vital statistics on October 10, the parent or guardian of a child up to the age of four can apply to add their ward’s name on the birth certificate on the MCD website. “Parents can use their registered mobile number on the online birth registration module and it will follow by instantaneous auto-approval,” the order says.

A senior MCD official said that most parents are unable to add the names of their child to the birth certificate as far as institutional births are concerned as the document is automatically issued as per the data sent by the healthcare facility.

“Under the current process, the parents have to apply for name addition on the birth certificate. The file and documents such as identity proofs of parents and hospital documents are sent to sub-registrar for verification after which new certificates are issued with name addition. Since these birth certificates are used for various processes including school admissions, we found that parents were facing this additional hurdle. Now the process will be under approval mode,” the official said.

Another MCD official, however, clarified that the facility to add the child’s name to the certificate will be available only once. “There will be zero fee charged if the process is carried out in the first year after the birth while ₹10 will be charged for each application between 1-par4 year period,” the official from the birth registration office said. “Moreover, the order will be in force for all children who are less than 4 years of age, so the process can also be adopted for births that have been taken over the last four years.”

According to section 14 of the Registration of Birth and Death Act, 1969, in cases “where the birth of any child has been registered without a name, the parent or guardian of such child shall within the prescribed period give information regarding the name of the child to the registrar either orally or in writing and thereupon the registrar shall enter such name in the register and initial and date of the entry”.

According to the 2020 edition of the annual report on birth and death registrations in Delhi, a total of 301,645 births were registered in the national capital, of which 277,334 (91.94%) were institutional and 24,311 (8.06%) took place at homes.