Mashiat Abedin
Every day, women face deep-rooted inequalities that quietly shape their lives. In Bangladesh, one such inequality remains largely overlooked yet profoundly detrimental: the absence of birth and death registration for millions of women. A birth certificate is a woman’s first legal identity. It determines her access to education, healthcare, social protection, property, justice, and safety. But for countless women across Bangladesh, this most basic right remains out of reach. The existing Birth and Death Registration Act, 2004, while applicable to all citizens, falls short in protecting women. As a result, women remain invisible within families, communities, and the nation, leaving them excluded from fundamental rights and protection.
Discrimination against women begins early, often from birth. Without the birth certificate, there is no proof of age, causing girls to become easy targets for child marriage. A study shows that currently 51.4% of women aged 20–24 in Bangladesh is married before reaching 18. Among them, 24% become mothers before 18, placing them at higher risk of maternal health complications and even maternal mortality. Child marriage also exposes them to physical and emotional violence; nearly 28% of adolescent girls experience spousal abuse. The absence of birth registration means greater vulnerability, for example, no proof of age, no school enrollment, fewer job opportunities, no claim to inheritance and so on.
When death goes unregistered, women disappear a second time. Studies show that death registration among poor and rural women is extremely low. When a woman’s death and its cause are not recorded, the state cannot determine what diseases disproportionately affect women. As a result, health policies fail to address women's real needs and issues. On the other hand, cases of violence-related deaths become challenging to investigate, while giving the perpetrators a chance to escape accountability due to lack of documentation. The state does not have accurate information about which type of violence is increasing or which region is at greater risk. Therefore, the policies related to victim shelters, support services, prevention programs are formulated using incomplete data.
The Birth and Death Registration Act, 2004 makes registration within 45 days mandatory. But it places the responsibility of reporting births and deaths on families, despite 67% of births occurring in healthcare facilities. Hospitals have no legal responsibility to register them. This is especially problematic for women because marginalized families often do not prioritize registration of daughters. At the same time, very few women own land or other property in rural areas. So, family members do not feel any need to register their deaths. Mandating every hospital and clinic to register birth and death will accelerate the progress towards universal coverage in Bangladesh.
Many countries in Asia–Pacific region have adopted hospital-based registration systems, achieving near-universal coverage. Bangladesh must follow suit. The current situation of Bangladesh is quite alarming. The birth and death registration rates stand at only 50% and 47% respectively. These numbers lag far behind global averages and women are the ones who suffer the most. To protect women’s rights, the government must urgently amend the Birth and Death Registration Act, 2004 and assign hospitals the legal duty to register all births and deaths, waive correction fees for amendments made within 45 days, and ensure the use of registration data for compiling vital statistics. Additionally, birth–death registration must be promoted as a fundamental right for women. The effective implementation of the law must be ensured through enhanced technology, simplified procedures, stronger accountability and coordination among relevant agencies and departments.
Registration is the first step toward women’s dignity. It establishes identity, visibility, and justice. Without them, women are absent from statistics, overlooked in policy, and denied their rights. To protect women’s dignity and ensure equality, Bangladesh must strengthen its birth and death registration law now.
Mashiat Abedin is the Coordinator at PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress). She can be reached at abedin.mashiat@gmail.com
AU/BP
