Child registration obstaclesAbsent fathers make surnames complicated The father’s absence at the registration of a newborn baby causes the child to be registered in the mother’s name, which is not always accepted by the father and his family. ILENI NANDJATOCommunity members of Elavi in the Oshikoto Region have told the deputy minister of home affairs and immigration, Erastus Uutoni, that timely birth registration is not possible as long as the babies’ fathers are not present during birth.
Elavi women told Uutoni the registration of birth requires both parents to be present during registration, but in most cases fathers are not available during labour and sometimes men do not want to go to Home Affairs offices to register the birth. They said that registering newborn babies is causing children to be fatherless and is also contributing to gender-based violence.
“We cannot register our newborns on our names. Fathers and their family members will not accept that these children are theirs. Many fathers give us their national documents when we are about to give birth saying we must just register the birth, but officials require that the father is present. To avoid having fatherless children or get into gender-based violence we just wait until the fathers are ready or available to go to the offices,” community members said.
Uutoni heard this during a dialogue with community members of Elavi in Nehale lyaMpingana constituency in the Oshikoto Region on Friday. He held a meeting with the community while observing the progression of the mobile team registering births and issuing national documents in Nehale lyaMpingana constituency. The team was faced with a challenge of high numbers of mothers intending to get birth certificates for their children, but they were turned away because fathers were not present and they did not want to register these children on their own names.
“Namibia has a timely birth registration strategy that is aimed at registering every child born in Namibia on time. We issue every child registered with a birth certificate. Registration is done by both parents and if the father is not available at that time, let the mother register the child on her name and the father can add his particulars late,” Uutoni told community members.
The home affairs ministry introduced the timely birth registration in 2008 when birth registration centres were established in hospitals, but Uutoni said late birth registration remains a challenge. Parents only attempt to register their children when they are about to enrol school.
Simeon Nghipandwa, civil registration deputy director for the northern and western regions, told community members that child registration needs both parents and their documents for the child to be registered on their names. He also told them that it is a long process for them to issue a birth certificate to a child over the age of 12 months which he said ends up frustrating many parents desperate to get birth certificates for their children to enrol for school.
“We only registered children on both parents’ names if they are all available during registration. Once you wait until your child is over 12 months old, the ministry will require you to have many support documents and witnesses to prove that that child is really Namibian. This takes time as we have to investigate all the people involved in the application first before we issue the document. The better option is for a mother to register the child on her name. Then father can add his particulars any time they wish and it is very easy. They only make declarations at police and sign,” Nghipandwa said.
Uutoni advised women to discuss the issue of birth registration with the father or father’s family first to avoid conflict. The mobile birth registration and national documents issuing unit will be in Nehale LyaMpingana until 30 November, after an assessment was conducted from in October and the findings were that many community members of Elavi do not have national documents.