NRB to Roll Out Mandatory Death Registration
By Hawa Malishe & Nick Kayange
Zomba, May 11, Mana: National Registration Bureau (NRB) says it will roll out a mandatory registration of all deaths in Zomba District from this week.
The registration would be done in all health facilities and villages as mandated through the National Registration Act.
Speaking during a full council meeting, Deputy Director of National Registration Bureau, Moses Chiwoni, said NRB is mandated to maintain population registers and for the institution to properly maintain that, it needs to register deaths apart from having birth registers.
Chiwoni said among other things, death registration would assist in knowing how many people are dying per day, in which area of the district and what the main cause of deaths is in case of common diseases.
Over 8 Million Children Denied Right to Identity A hand that giveth - pic by Pilirani Tambala
The National Registration Bureau (NRB) has conceded that over eight million children in Malawi under the age of 16 are being denied the right to legal identity for their speedy access to justice and other social services.
NRB Deputy Director, Moses Chiwoni, told Zodiak Online that in spite of putting in place systems for every child to be registered through the health facilities, progress has been very minimal.
“The arrangement we had with ministry of health is not working because there is shortage of health personnel who are mostly overwhelmed with their core medical tasks to handle the birth registration process,” explained Chiwoni.