Digital birth certificate sans religion, marriage details: Registrar General

The Registrar General’s Department said yesterday the proposed digital birth certificate, which had excluded religion and marriage details of parents, would be issued to people in both languages after completing the legal process.

Registrar General N. C. Vithanage said the new birth certificate, which would be issued with international standards and protective techniques, had rectified shortcomings identified in the old one.

He said the marriage details of the parents which had been negatively affected some children had been removed from the new birth certificate.

Statement issued by the Registrar General’s Department said the new certificate would be equipped with new features such as Quick Response (QR) code, a Bar Code, a watermark and hologram sticker to meet international standards.

The statement said the new certificate issued with the signature of the Registrar General would include the identical number given at birth and it would be named ‘National Birth Certificate’ instead of ‘Birth Certificate’ as previously named.

Mr Vithanage said details of the religion would not be included in the new birth certificate just as in the old one and added that however, nationality of parents and their ethnic group would be included in the new certificate.(Ajith Siriwardana)