70pc Banggi folks facing birth registration woes
Published on: Monday, August 03, 2015
Kudat: Nearly 70 per cent of the 18,000 population in Pulau Banggi are faced with issues concerning birth registration despite the island being just an hour's ferry ride from Kudat. In a joint effort to create awareness on the importance of birth registration, the Partners of Community Organisation (Pacos Trust) and Suara Banggi together with other community based organisations formed the Working Group – Right to Identity (WG-R21) to address the issue via a campaign called "Birth Registration Awareness for Community Leaders in Pulau Banggi".Banggi Assemblyman Datuk Mijul Unaini who officiated at the campaign said the island is populated by various communities, comprising the Ubian, Dusun Bonggi, Balabak, Bajau and Suluk among others.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Since I became assemblyman in 2008, I have been approached by many villagers who are faced with documentation issues. "From what I see, among the main factors are the people's attitude, those who do not think of future complications when they allow their children to marry those without proper documents."Thus, I urge them to think twice before allowing your children to marry those without documents," he said, adding that another factor was because of the parents' lackadaisical attitude when it comes to getting their marriage registered through proper channels. He cited incidents where both parents are locals but their marriage was not registered through proper channels, thus, making birth registration difficult.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Your marriage will not be recognised if you do not register through the proper channel and this would also complicate your child's birth registration process where one of the requirements is for you to produce a valid marriage certificate," he said. Mijul applauded the efforts by the WG-R21 and was glad to note the encouraging response received from residents towards the campaign.
ADVERTISEMENT
"More are aware of the importance of getting their child's birth registered, prior to this they did not know where to go and this campaign has somehow opened their eyes and minds on the importance of birth registration," he said. On a different note, he said lack of infrastructure such as consistent supply of clean water and power supply were also among issues faced by the residents. "Students' safety is also at risk especially when they have to travel by boat to get to their schools, thus there is still plenty of upgrading and improvement to be done on roads connecting them to the schools here," he said, adding that there was also a need to upgrade the only existing health clinic on the island to a hospital. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
