National campaign gives children an identity

Nearly 70% of children in Paraguay are not registered, and the problem is more acute in rural areas. A new nationwide campaign by Plan aims to remove some of the obstacles to birth registration and give children their right to an identity.

Due to economic problems, Juana had not been able to register her children in the Office of Civil Records. Money is needed to pay for the ticket to the city, and it costs 15,000 Guaranies per child ($2.50) to issue the birth certificate for the first time. With help from the Universal Birth Registration project run by Plan in her area, she was able to make sure that all of her five children have access to their legal rights.

She says, “Before there was a free registration for children but we couldn’t register them because we didn’t know; but now, the invitation was made house by house and this allowed many children to be registered. It is very important for us to be able to register our children because they already go to school and they’ll be able to have a last name and their ID card.”

Schools will initially accept children without seeing their birth certificates, but often children drop out of school because of the pressure teachers put on them to present proof of registration.

Without legal registration, children are also left vulnerable to exploitation through child labour and prostitution. The police treat those without an ID card with suspicion, and teenagers often have to bribe the police officers because they are in fear for being arrested for not carrying identification.

Plan Paraguay in collaboration with the National Office of Civil Record and the Ministry for Children and Adolescents have organised large campaigns for civil registration, performing research with the state organisations with the aim of assessing the problem. The research showed that in those departments where Plan is present, only 18% of the children under a year old are registered. As well as economic issues, corruption in local authorities and lack of parental awareness contribute to the problem.

In response, the government offices and Plan started a national campaign. This resulted in the registration of over 25,000 children. Additionally, nearly 6,000 teachers from four departments received training to help control birth registration payments to the Civil Record offices, and a training programme for midwives in rural communities has been established so that they can raise awareness among new parents of the need for birth registration.

In collaboration with UNICEF, the Ministry for Children and Adolescents, the NGO’s National Coordinator and Plan have created an alliance to build up an Identity Programme, which will hopefully go beyond the county and department and will turn into a national project.