Soon, make changes to birth certificate online

CHENNAI: Soon, a few clicks online is all that will take to get corrections made on one’s birth or death certificate. To streamline the entire process and remove middlemen, Greater Chennai Corporation is updating the existing software and a trial has begun in the Adyar zone.


As per the procedure, pregnancy should be first registered with the nearest primary health centre. After the child is born, the hospital provides a form which is filled either by the parents or relatives. “Most of the time, the name of the child is not filled in the form or it is misspelt in a hurry. We receive several applications for corrections every day,” said deputy commissioner (health) P Madhusudhan Reddy. A visit to the zonal office is currently mandatory to fill up the forms that requires validation by sanitary inspectors.

V Sasikumar, a daily wage worker who wanted to get his wife’s name corrected in his son’s birth certificate, was made to run from pillar to post to get the correction done. “My son’s exams were coming up and he required the certificate as proof. I found it very difficult to get the spelling corrected. I was asked to visit the zonal office and made to wait for long hours. Making it online will make it hassle-free for sure,” he said.

With complaints of corruption and reports of middlemen interfering with the procedure pouring in, the civic body has decided to make the process online so applicants won’t have to visit any office or meet officials.

“We have been receiving many forms for corrections of names in the birth certificates. So, we decided to make the process available online where the applicant will have to log in to the website and register themselves. Later, they can include the names, make other necessary spelling corrections and upload supporting documents. The documents will be validated within a week’s time and a SMS will be sent to the applicant regarding the same,” said Madhusudhan Reddy. All corrections, except date of birth, can be made online.

“We will check for errors for another two weeks and make changes to the software after which it will be made available on the official corporation website. Even government e-seva centres can be used to avail this facility. Based on its success, the same will be implemented for death certificate as well,” said an official.

Aditya R, a resident of Kerala who had recently shifted to Chennai, found the current process tedious. “In Tamil Nadu, I was not aware that we had to register the pregnancy with the nearest primary health centre. So when my son was born, I had to make several trips to the zonal office and the health centres to get all the forms filled. Not every hospital insists on adding the child’s name and people like me from other cities will benefit a lot from this online procedure,” he said.