Midwives to issue birth, death certificates

LUDHIANA: To make the process of issuing birth and death certificates simpler at block levels in rural areas, these will be issued by auxiliary nurses midwives (ANMS) at local levels instead of panchayats.
Sources at local level said instructions had been given to Accredited Social Health activists (Asha) workers that they would be giving information to ANMs and after that birth and death certificates would be issued.
An official said the step had been taken so as to reduce harassment to people and to hasten the process of issuing the certificates. He added that along with this, the initiative would help in knowing the accurate figures of number of births and deaths in a particular area. He said for this the ASHA workers would be given extra incentive.
The official told that as ANMS were working at the ground level, they were aware of the lady pregnant in their area, this would also help in curbing the female foeticide along with that the status of deliveries would be known as how many babies were delivered at institutions and how many at home.
NHRM nodal officer Sanjeev Hans said this would help in knowing the accurate status of births and deaths in a particular area. He added that earlier these powers were with panchayat system and now the work had been given to health department which would facilitate the maintenance of records.