The mechanism of the Constitution of India is such that the minute a child is born, he/she is vested with several rights. One such right is to have a name and a nationality.
Article 7 of the 1989 U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) states that, “The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.”
A method to ensure that a child is imparted with these rights is to get their birth certificate made.
Registration of birth is a permanent and official record of the fact that a child was born. Any child who is not registered at birth is in danger of being denied the right to an official identity, a recognised name.
According to UNICEF, in India, approximately 26 million children are born every year and out of these 26 million, at least 10 million remain unregistered.
This means that more than 40% of the children born every year don’t get registered.
This is happening in spite of a birth certificate being one of the most crucial certificates of identity a child can have.
Be it for admission to a school, as a proof of age for employment or as a document required for establishing parentage, a birth certificate is a must in a lot of places.
How to Write an Application for a Birth Certificate
Registration of birth is governed by sections 12 and 17 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1969 on the central level.
Each state manages the registration of birth for their residents.
Common practice nowadays is that the hospital in which a child is born, issues the child’s birth certificate within a period of 21 days.
In case the certificate is not issued or a child is not born in a hospital, their certificate can be obtained at any point in time.
It is always advisable to get the certificate issued from the municipality or Registrar of Births and Deaths or the Municipal Corporation because a birth certificate issued by the hospital cannot be produced as a proof of date of birth to have a passport issued.
In order to apply offline:
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Go to your browser and type your state’s name followed by the words “citizen service.”
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Open the services link.
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Next, go to available services and download the birth certificate form and print it out. After filling the form, submit it along with an affidavit and other documents as specified by your state’s website.
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Submit your documents to the e-Mitra or the Common Service Center of your Municipality.
In order to apply online:
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Go to your browser and type your state’s name followed by the words “citizen service”
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Open the services link.
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Click on new user registration
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Register with the portal as a new user by entering all the required information
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If you already have an ID with your respective citizen service, then login to your id.
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After logging in, go to apply and choose the application for a birth certificate online option.
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After choosing this option, a form will open in front of you. This form is to be filled in your state’s regional language and English. (for example, if you live in Uttar Pradesh, you will have to fill the form in Hindi as well as English)
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If you don’t have an indigenous language keyboard on your device, you can use Google input tool to type in your local language as required by the form.
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After filling the rest of the form you need to upload certain essential documents.
Documents Required for Birth Certificate Application:
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An affidavit regarding the truth of the information given in the form.
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A registration slip provided at the time of child’s birth from the hospital where the child was born.
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If you don’t have the hospital’s slip or the child was not born at the hospital, an exhibit from your Gram Panchayat or the city councilor or the honourable Member of Parliament or from an MBBS doctor is to be submitted instead.
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Such exhibit must contain:
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Child’s name
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Child’s father’s name
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Child’s residential address
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Child’s date of birth
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Signature and seal of the authority that is issuing the exhibit
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After this, you need to upload a valid ID proof, i.e, Aadhar, Voters’ ID or any other ID specified in your state’s respective rules.
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These documents must be in a scanned PDF format and their size should not exceed 300kb individually.
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After uploading these documents, click on submit. A new screen will appear with a form that has all the details and the documents that you have just filled in.
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An application number will also appear at the top of this form. This application number is very important as it can be used to check birth certificate online status and downloading it. Make sure that you print this form for future references.
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At the bottom of this form, you will find an option of paying the online fee for the issuance of the certificate. This is a nominal fee between 10-20 rupees, varying from state to state.
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After clicking on the payment option, you will be redirected to another page where you will have to enter your application number. Click the submit button.
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You will be redirected to the secure payment portal. Choose the mode of payment you prefer and make the payment.
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As soon as you submit the payment, your application will be submitted for processing and you will be redirected to your citizen service ID account.
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Here you can find an option for checking the status of your application under ‘list of applications”.
Birth certificate registration has come a long way in India since it was made compulsory in 1969 by the Registration of Births and Deaths Act.
Earlier people had to run around in their municipality offices and now they are just a click away.
Today, almost every state has a citizen service website that issues and makes available the birth certificates to people inside its territorial jurisdiction.
Here are the state-wise websites to apply for a birth certificate online:-
Who Can Help You?
Whether you need help with writing an application for your birth certificate or want to know about the different stages of birth certificate registration, MyAdvo, a legal tech facilitator will provide you high-quality services.
At MyAdvo, we provide our clients with various kinds of legal and techno-legal assistance. With a network of 10,000+ lawyers, spread across 500+ districts in India, MyAdvo is one of India’s leading tech-service providers.
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With the use of technological solutions, we match the client’s requirements with the lawyer based on expertise, location etc. All you have to do is connect with us at support@myadvo.in or call us at +91-9811782573 and express your concerns right away and we’ll look into the rest.
