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Lack of birth certificates continue to haunt school children
Child Protection Society (CPS)
Extracted from the Child Advocate Newsletter, Issue No. 3
December 2003

Despite widespread national campaigns conducted regularly to highlight the hardships faced by Zimbabwean children due to lack of birth certificates, the identity woes continue to haunt them and to negatively affect their education.

A recent workshop organised by CPS established that thousands of school going children experience untold hardships because they do not have birth certificates. Some are forced to walk daily distances of as long as 15 kilometres to attend schools that do make birth certificates strict requirements for admission. By the time they get into class, such children are too tired to concentrate on their lessons.

Workshop participants called on government to relax laws on birth registration to allow every child born in the country to obtain a birth certificate hassle-free, regardless of circumstances surrounding their birth.

Research conducted recently showed that in Mashonaland East province alone, 225 boys and 223 girls aged between six and 14 years, out of a studied population of 5,850 children, had dropped out of school mainly due to lack of birth certificates. More than half of the affected children had failed to obtain birth certificates because they were orphaned.

By denying children birth certificates, the state which is supposed to act as the duty bearer to all children born in this country, exposes them to more dangers and abuses. A girl aged under 16 (EDITOR - am not sure of this – is the age of sexual consent 16 or 18) can be sexually abused, but courts may fail to prosecute an offender if no records of her actual age are available in the form of a birth certificate.

Several strategies can be adopted to ensure all children acquire birth certificates. A massive campaign by both government and civil society on the importance of birth certificates, is one. But such a campaign will be futile as long as government does not remove strict requirements for the registration of a child. Government can also make use of traditional chiefs and other local leadership structures to help in birth registration. Incorporating birth registration in the school curricula, will also raise awareness among the children themselves on the importance of birth certificates.

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