PORT DICKSON: Personal problems has been identified as the main contributor behind the many cases of unregistered births in the country.
National Registration Department (NRD) director-general Datuk Mohd Yazid Ramli said, unregistered marriage, divorce, marriage of different nationalities and illegitimate child are among the issues faced by the public who do not have birth certificates.
"The failure to make birth registration often ends up with various setbacks in the future. Regardless of the problems, we urge everyone to come to any NRD's offices and our officers will try their best to help to ensure that birth registrations can be completed according to the procedure," he said.
He said, lack of awareness on the importance to register for birth certificates has led to various documentation issues which will affect the life of the children in the future.
"For instance, it will be hard for the children to register for school as they don't possess birth certificates and identification card. They too can't fully benefit the services provided by the government as they can't provide the documents needed," he said when met after launching the NRD Walkabaout Programme at Kampung India Bukit Pelanduk here, today.
The programme which is held nationwide to solve issues related with identification cards and certificates, provides registration services of identification documents as well as submission of completed documents to applicants.
On the latest fire incident involving the Yayasan Sofa Astana tahfiz school at Raja Chengkau Rembau recently which saw 37 female students escaped unhurt, Yazid said, NRD will help to speed up the process to replace the damaged identification card of the students.
"The incident is considered as natural disaster and we will send our officers as soon as possible to help the students to get their new identification cards," he said.
He added, NRD will also work closely with the police and Welfare Department in issuing special identity card for all stateless children under the care of the welfare homes.
This following the announcement made by the Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim who had stated that special ID would resolve a lot of documentation issues faced by stateless children under its care, especially after they leave the department’s children’s homes at the age of 18.
"We will get full reports from the police and Welfare Department before the identification card can be issued," he said.