From this academic year onward, parents have five options that can be exercised, and schools are bound to accept these documents as proof of the child’s date of birth. An official order issued recently by the state department of public instructions said, “Schools should not just stick to birth certificate or undertaking from the parents. If the parents cannot produce a birth certificate for the child, other options could be explored, mentioned in this order.”
Parents can provide a certificate provided by the Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) or a document from the hospital in which the child was born. If even those documents are hard to get, parents can submit a birth certificate issued by the Anganwadi near the home or also the certificate that teachers prepare while taking a child census, the Compulsory Primary Education (CPE) document.
Officials said that the order had been issued under the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009. “Schedule 14 of the RTE Act says that there should be a number of documents that can be produced at the time of admission, so that all children gain easy access to primary education. Based on that act, we finalised three more documents along with the birth certificate and the undertaking by parents that could serve the purpose of the birth certificate at the time of admission,” a senior official said.
Officials said that in the past, there were instances of children being denied admission as parents could not submit a birth certificate. “This happens in cases of slum children and also some rural children. Parents often do not have the birth certificate, and are sometimes even unable to give an undertaking. Now on, no child will be denied admission on that ground