Being registered

(Interviews and photos by Shabna Ullah)

This week we asked persons if they have been registered as yet by the house-to-house exercise and got the following responses:

Roopchand, pandit,
“Yes, I got registered about two weeks ago. I was not at home the first time when the group visited my home and they had to come again. I am very happy that they are going around to people’s homes and registering them. I can remember in the past when people had to wait in long lines until late at nights to get an identification card. This is a good system too because some people would not want to make the effort to go out.”

Marsha Carmichael, police,
“Yes, I have already been registered but the GECOM workers had to come three times before I was able to get it done. The first time they came I was not at home and the second time when they returned it was a bad time for me and they had to come again. I am not satisfied with the six months house-to-house registration process. They should have gone around for three months and the other three months they should have had a centre so people can go in their own time and get registered. They had centres in the past and to me that was a smooth and easy process.”

Davie Persaud, sales clerk,
“I have not been able to register as yet although they went to my house and I was glad to get it done. The problem is that I was born in Venezuela and although I came back about 12 years ago I was not able to get a new birth certificate. My brother has the same problem. The workers said they have to give us forms so we can fill them up to apply for the birth certificates. I am looking forward to getting registered and having an ID card for the first time.”…..