GCC to send birth certificates to parents directly on WhatsApp from next week

Chennai: Parents of children born in hospitals within Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) limits will now receive their child's birth certificate on WhatsApp.GCC is creating the new service linked to its chatbot number 9445061913. GCC city health officer M Jagadeesan said earlier people downloaded birth certificates manually using Namma Chennai app or from the GCC website. "Under the new system, the PDF format of the birth certificate will come via WhatsApp on the mobile number registered by the parents," said Jagadeesan. The service will roll out in a week. GCC daily issues 300 birth certificates. Once this is made functional, the civic agency plans to expand similar automated services for death certificates too. Residents, meanwhile, said the corporation has to introduce a new digital portal for submitting corrections and omissions in the names. "Now it is a physical process. We have to visit the divisional health offices or zonal offices to submit the forms. If this is digitised, people don't have to physically visit," said K Sabarinathan of Kodambakkam zone.Residents also sought an upgrade of the Namma Chennai app which has been suffering glitches.R Ramesh, a civic activist, said the app already had all services, but it's now defunct. "I'm not able to raise a complaint, forget accessing services. It's asking mandatory location, but the GPS isn't tracking our house. It has to be upgraded," he said. The corporation should make all services available on the app, he said.