Forget the tedious rounds at the circle and ward offices of the
municipal department to register the new addition to your family. The
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) launched an initiative to
deliver digital birth certificates to new mommies and daddies at their
doorstep. To add that humane touch, the digital certificate will be
accompanied by a congratulatory note on behalf of the GHMC Mayor and
GHMC Commissioners.

The scheme was launched on Monday by the mayor
M Majid Hussain in the presence of commissioner M T Krishna Babu at the
GHMC head office. The birth certificates will be couriered directly to
the designated address free of cost, despatched twice a week. “The
package will also contain details of the vaccination schedule for the
baby to spread awareness among the parents regarding the doses and
schedule for BCG, DPT, Measles, DT, TT and Vitamin doses,” said the
Mayor.

The complaints against the delay in obtaining birth
certificates from the circle and ward offices within the GHMC limits
prompted the measure to expedite the process and provided much-needed
relief to the parents. “We have provided user names and passwords to
about 100 hospitals in the city. The login can be used for the
registration of births and deaths at these hospitals,” said commissioner
M T Krishna Babu. The online entry of an event will immediately process
the request for the certificate which will then be forwarded to the
courier services along with other components of the package for
delivery. The hospital authorities will also inform the parents
regarding the schedule for vaccinations on their mobile phones as per
the contact information supplied.

So far GHMC  has computerised 75
lakh records of birth and death events since 1957, out of which 27 lakh
records starting from the year 2000 have been digitized and are readily
accessible to the public. “Digitization of the data from 1990 to 1999
is under progress,” added the commissioner.