Policy Brief drafted by CREHPA and UNFPA on Gender Gap in Birth Registration and the Practice of Gender-Biased Sex Selection

The policy brief reminds us that birth registration is mandatory in Nepal and is required for enrolment in schools, accessing health services, for obtaining national citizenship, passport etc. and that, in 2016, 56% of the children under the age of 5 years were registered, out of which only 52% having a birth certificate. The study was conducted to understand the proximity between the gender-gap in birth registration and the practice of gender-biased sex selection (GBSS): “GBSS may be post-natal (generally up to five years of age) and result in neglect, differential treatment in maternal nutrition and childcare, as well as infanticide”. The study showed that three main reasons cited by the women for non-registration of birth of their children were: Lack of marriage certificate, lack of time to register the birth and lockdown during COVID-19 and that the majority of the parents register the births of their children after two years of age. More specifically, the study found that couples generally register more the birth of sons/male in comparison to daughters/ females. The study concludes in noting that “This gender-gap in birth registration reaffirms the Civil Event Registration System (CERS data). Existence of wide gender-differences in birth registration in the last 5 years is a reflection of GBSS both during prenatal and postnatal stages as well as under registration of female birth. This clearly reveals that CERS data can be used for mapping of municipalities and communities with a wide gender-gap in birth registrations and associating such gender-gaps in birth registration to the prevalence of high son preference, gender discrimination and the practice of GBSS”. CHIP welcomes this analysis which helped to raise awareness regarding gender discrimination in birth registration.

Source:  Center for Research on Environment, Health and Population Activities (CREHPA), Kathmandu, Nepal, UNFPA: https://nepal.unfpa.org/en/publications/policy-brief-gender-gap-birth-registration-and-practice-gender-biased-sex-selection