Mumbai: In the wake of an FIR against two civic health officials for registering “suspicious” birth cases, Mumbai mayor Ritu Tawde on Friday said it was the health department’s responsibility to verify parents’ documents before issuing birth certificates.Lapses in the birth registration process, she said, had “legalised illegal stays”.“If documents had been checked, it would have been clear the parents were Bangladeshis living illegally in Mumbai and could have been sent back immediately,” she said, claiming of the 237 alleged fake birth certificates issued by the civic health department, 75 have been traced so far.“By issuing fake birth certificates, the civic administration ended up legalising their stay, and even enabled access to voting rights and civic facilities,” she said.The mayor said the scale of the problem could be far bigger. “We believe there could be up to 10,000 such cases. Before my term ends, I want every one of them traced and removed from the city,” she added.On how the system should respond when a woman arrives in labour without documents, Tawde said humanitarian considerations must prevail. “Delivery should not be denied. But if documents are not in order, a birth certificate should not be issued.” On Feb 13, Tawde, along with former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, took a meeting of all civic health department officials. After another meeting held on Feb 17, the BMC lodged an FIR against two of its own suspended health department officials for misusing their official positions while registering births.The FIR states officials approved records of home births without proper examination of documents, and registered nine births at a private nursing home without conducting mandatory inspections.Opposition leaders hit back, accusing the mayor of pushing the administration into a policing role. Verifying the authenticity of parent’s documents, they argued, is not civic officials’ job. Congress corporator Tulip Miranda said, “When a delivery takes place in a moving train, a birth certificate is issued of the place where the birth took place. On what basis are officials expected to deny these birth certificates even though the child only gets a domicile of its parents? We cannot expect civic staff to go and check parents’ records too.” Birth details of a child are expected to be sent to the nearest civic office within 21 days of birth.But Tawde said it’s essential that Bangladeshis are sent back so even issues like them illegally taking over footpaths by hawking can be resolved.“There’s absolutely no question of issuing birth certificates to illegal immigrants in our city. I will be taking a review on this issue once again with the health department very soon. While we cannot deny a woman in labour pain the right to give birth, but this cannot be justified to give them birth certificates at a time when they don’t belong to our country,” said Tawde.
