A quarter of Indonesian kids don’t own birth certificates, Government reveals
By GovInsider
Increase in cases from 31% in 2014 to 74% last year.
The Indonesian Government has revealed that more than a quarter of its children population do not own birth certificates. The age group ranges from ages 1 to 18, making up nearly 20 million residents in the country.
The number of cases has increased to 74 percent in 2016, from 31 percent in 2014, said Tjahjo Kumolo, the country’s Home Affairs Minister, according to the Jakarta Globe.
The Minister attributed the rise in the number of cases to the public’s lack of awareness on the importance of birth registrations; the lack of access to government registration services in rural areas; and limiting budgets for mobile birth registration services.
“There are birth certificates that have yet to be updated on the population database”, he said. Indonesian children need to produce birth certificates to enter public school.
Without the certification, they are unable to apply for national IDs which are required to access government services.