Assessing Electronic Civil Birth Registration in Bangladesh : a study on Dhaka South City Corporation

Background: Civil birth registration is an essential legal document for obtaining services from the government, businesses, education, insurance, health, utility and others. Objective: The study explored the existing status of Electronic Civil Birth Registration in Bangladesh. It examined to what extent Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) effectively provided electronic birth registration to citizens. Methods: The study was designed based on a mixed-method approach. A survey method was followed to collect data from 160 respondents living in DSCC in Bangladesh. In addition, the study conducted a semi-structured interview with 10 designated officers from the zonal office and 10 service recipients of DSCC. The study used the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 to analyse the data. Results: Results showed a lack of qualified administrative staff, e-services infrastructure and failures on the Birth Registration Information System (BRIS) server in DSCC. Civil birth registration has not been yet a one-stop online service, so citizens still avail of birth registration services manually. Citizens do not apply for birth registration on time, which brings an additional burden on city corporation zonal offices to provide services with the limited staff, especially in November, December and January of each year. Conclusion: Study findings would be an important guideline for revising the Birth and Deaths Registration Act 2018 with an emphasis on electronic birth registration to eliminate hassle, illegal monetary transactions, fraudulence in the paper and the cost of the service.