Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee made the disclosure recently in a written response to questions posed by AFC MP Sheila Holder. Holder sought to find out how many requests have been made annually to the GRO for birth certificates on a regional basis. Additionally, noting constant complaints of indigenous communities, Holder sought to find out whether there were arrangements in place to allow them to acquire birth certificates and be registered as electors. “This is a real problem,” she told Stabroek News, noting that communities have told the AFC of difficulties that their residents have encountered in getting registered because they could not acquire birth certificates.
She added that steps were being taken to fix the problem since the tenure of former Amerindian Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues but the party’s supporters continue to complain.
According to the statistics provided by Rohee, there were 79,286 applications for 2006, while 198,000 certificates were issued; there were 69,419 applications for 2007 and 208,000 certificates issued; and there were 109,449 applications for 2008 and 254,000 certificates issued.
Rohee said the GRO has made visits to regions 1,7,8,9 and parts of regions 2 and 10 to educate villagers about the importance of birth registration and the acquisition of birth certificates.
Additionally, training is ongoing for Community Development Officers (CDO) in those regions on the requirements of late registration, to ensure the birth registration of adults.
To complement this effort, there is the appointment and training of Community Health Workers in birth registration to ensure all children are registered at birth.
Where postal service is unavailable, CDO’s in each region ensure applications are brought out and certificates taken in. Where postal services are available, applications are accepted and sent to the GRO and certificates returned by the same process.
The GRO plans also to continue to engage the Amerindian Affairs Ministry to ensure birth certificates are available to the regions. Further, the GRO has dedicated a section to the late registration of residents in regions 1, 7, 8 and 9.
Meanwhile, it was also noted that church leaders and health workers are very active in the regions in assisting with late registrations and ensuring applications are brought out and certificates are taken back.
