UNDP Tajikistan has launched free Mobile Civil Registration sessions in rural areas, where children are most affected by non-registration or delayed birth registration. According to UNDP Tajikistan, the sessions are implemented in partnership with the Civil Registration Department of the Ministry of Justice and with the support of the Swiss Development Cooperation office in Tajikistan.
The project reportedly aims to boost birth registrations and facilitate the issuance of free birth records to vulnerable families identified during assessment for the Ethnographic and Behavioral Insight Research for Civil Registration in Tajikistan.
Lack of birth registration increases children’s vulnerability to many forms of abuses and neglect, such as child marriage, child labor and trafficking. The Ethnographic study also shows that unregistered children have limited access to medical services including timely vaccination and medical examinations. Failure to enroll in school is another common consequence of non or late birth registration in rural areas of Tajikistan.
The free Mobile Civil Registration will mitigate those risks reducing the number of unregistered births in targeted districts by providing free registration services and coaching secretaries of jamoats as the key civil registrars in rural areas, and health care personnel.
The project targets to register 800 vulnerable children mainly from Khatlon Province and Districts Subordinate to the Center. The beneficiaries are households with family members in migration, who do most of decision making as per traditional gender roles, low-income families, families with children with special needs, and households from remote villages.
The UNDP will continue to provide technical support to Civil Registration Department of Tajikistan in implementing the national agenda to reduce the number of unregistered or late registered births in the country.
