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Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Moyeen Khan has called for urgent measures to address the major discrepancy between the country’s actual population and the number of birth registrations recorded in the national database.
“It is a matter of concern that in a country of nearly 19 crore people, the registration database holds information on far more than that. We must remove such discrepancies and make the registration system accurate and credible,” he said.
The minister was speaking at a discussion marking National Birth and Death Registration Day 2026 at a hotel in Karwan Bazar in the capital. The Office of the Registrar General, Birth and Death Registration, under the Local Government Division, organised the event.
Describing birth and death registration as vital to national administration, Moyeen Khan said state power should be used to serve people, not obstruct access to services, while ensuring their needs and rights.
“Serving the public is the primary responsibility of an elected government,” he said, adding that elected representatives and public officials must work responsibly to fulfil the expectations people place in them when they cast their votes.
“Whatever the methods, civil servants and elected representatives share one goal, serving the people,” he said.
Technology alone cannot guarantee effective public service, the minister said, stressing that the people responsible for operating and managing the system must also be accountable.
He said no citizen should have to make repeated visits to a union parishad office to obtain a simple birth certificate.
“An ordinary villager may not be highly educated, but he or she is a citizen with a right to public services,” he said, urging officials at all levels to be more alert, responsible and people-oriented in delivering services at the grassroots.
Speaking as the special guest, State Minister for Local Government Mir Shahe Alam said the birth and death registration system was introduced in 2001 with support from UNICEF during the government of Begum Khaleda Zia, with the mother’s identity recorded alongside the father’s.
He said the country currently has 24.88 crore birth registrations and 58.19 lakh death registrations, while the 2022 census puts the country’s population at around 17 crore.
Such discrepancies are distorting national statistics, he said, calling for a fresh review of the registration data.
The state minister described the Birth and Death Registration Information System (BDRIS) as a key foundation for the government’s “One Citizen, One ID, One Digital Wallet” initiative.
He stressed the need to raise awareness at the union, ward and village levels to improve the accuracy of registration at the grassroots.
Referring to the government’s in-principle decision to reintroduce the Gram Sarkar (village government) system, he said it could help make birth and death registration at the village level more accurate.
Awards were also presented at the event in several categories in recognition of accuracy and excellence in birth and death registration.
