Count Every Child in India

Released in September 2010 by the Deputy Director of the Registrar General, the report "Count Every Child" documents the impact of Universal Birth Registration in India since the campaign launch in 2006. For five years, Plan India worked with various partners, including State governments, to increase birth registration rate and improve awareness on the issue.

Despite being a legal requirement in India since 1969 and a universally recognised human right, awareness of birth registration levels has previously been as low as 4% in some rural areas. Only 68% of births are registered, which means that annually 9.5 million newborns are not registered, in particular in rural areas where the rates are particularly low.

The report highlights various achievements and best practices. In 5 years, Plan India and partners have registered over 465,000 children and trained more than 6,700 civil servants, including midwives and village officials, to make birth registration more accessible to villagers. In the states of Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka this has meant a jump in registration rates from 20% to 80%. One of the main innovations has been to integrate birth registration into health services.

As a result, understanding of the importance of birth registration has increased in India, allowing many more children from disadvantaged areas to realise their rights in the country.