{"id":60030,"date":"2017-02-28T15:32:39","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T19:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/namati.org\/?post_type=namati_stories&p=60030"},"modified":"2023-01-11T11:57:50","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T15:57:50","slug":"birth-certificates-in-bangladesh-rumas-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/namati.org\/news-stories\/birth-certificates-in-bangladesh-rumas-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Birth Certificates in Bangladesh: Ruma’s Story","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Ruma\u2019s daughter was approaching school age, but there was a problem: Her daughter didn\u2019t have a birth certificate. Ruma couldn\u2019t enroll her in school without one. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea of securing a birth certificate was daunting and unclear for Ruma. She is a member of Bangladesh’s Urdu-speaking community, a minority group that has faced discrimination for decades and whose citizenship was only confirmed in 2008. With her family, she lives in a camp of Urdu-speakers community in the city of Khulna. <\/span>Members of the community – particularly those who reside in the camps –\u00a0<\/span>often do not understand their citizenship rights, do not know how to apply for their identity documents, or face <\/span>discrimination during the application process<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately, Ruma had heard about a\u00a0local office where paralegals offered assistance to those in the Urdu-speaking community. She sent her husband to the office, run by Namati’s partner, Council of Minorities, to find out if they could help her family through the process of acquiring proper identity documents. The paralegals advised her husband that he needed his ID card, a Commissioner\u2019s Certificate, and a letter from the local leadership in the camp to prove who he was and where he lived. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>

Ruma and her daughter with their new electricity meter. The meter helps them to prove their address and secure their identity documents.<\/p><\/div>\n

But establishing where the family lived was a problem: Ruma and her husband couldn\u2019t use an electricity bill as proof of residence because the electricity meter at their house had been destroyed in a fire. They hadn\u2019t applied for a new meter because they didn\u2019t know where to go. To begin, the paralegal took Ruma\u2019s husband on a journey across the city of Khulna to the main electricity office to apply for a new meter.
\n<\/span>
\nA month later, the new meter was installed and the family began receiving a bill listing the house number \u2013 an essential step for camp residents across the country, who can use an electricity bill to pursue basic citizenship rights such as acquiring a passport or opening a bank account. <\/span><\/p>\n

Encouraged by the success with the electricity meter, Ruma approached the paralegals for assistance in acquiring a birth certificate for her daughter. The paralegal advised her on the process, even accompanying her to the commissioner\u2019s office. It was intimidating at first, Ruma admits, but she\u2019s glad she did it \u00a0\u201cI got the certificate of my daughter and I can admit my daughter in school,\u201d she says happily. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ruma says she learned the process so well that she intends to help other Urdu-speakers get their identity documents and realize their full rights to citizenship, too. \u00a0\u201cI will help,\u201d she says, \u201cI will go with them to the Commissioner\u2019s Office.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To read more stories of individuals from communities that have struggled to secure their rights to citizenship in Bangladesh and Kenya, click here<\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

\f<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ruma\u2019s daughter was approaching school age, but there was a problem: Her daughter didn\u2019t have a birth certificate. Ruma couldn\u2019t enroll her in school without one. \u00a0 The idea of securing a birth certificate was daunting and unclear for Ruma. She is a member of Bangladesh’s Urdu-speaking community, a minority group that has faced discrimination…<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":118,"featured_media":60061,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-citizenship","category-community-paralegals","namati_post_type-story","region-bangladesh"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBirth Certificates in Bangladesh: Ruma's Story - Namati<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/namati.org\/news-stories\/birth-certificates-in-bangladesh-rumas-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Birth Certificates in Bangladesh: Ruma's Story - Namati\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ruma\u2019s daughter was approaching school age, but there was a problem: Her daughter didn\u2019t have a birth certificate. 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