I am delighted to participate in the launch programme of registration of birth by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner. I congratulate the efforts of this organization for making intensive efforts for promoting the registration process.

Children are our greatest wealth. Every child born in the nation should be allowed to blossom. This is the responsibility of the state. To enable us to fulfill this responsibility the first action is identification of the child soon after its birth. This should be correlated to the nutritional programme, immunization programme, pre-education programme, educational programme, healthcare programme leading to the development of an enlightened citizen who will become an asset for national development. Child is a creation of God. No one has the right to terminate the life in the mother's womb.

The macro-data on birth provides a medium for preparing demographic profile, population imbalances between different regions, effect of certain governmental decisions on the population profile, overall manpower planning for the nation and the effective functioning of the electoral process.

I am happy that the National Campaign on Birth Certificates is starting today and I would urge the organizers the campaign is carried out in big metros as well as rural areas. Emphasis in rural areas is essential to enable equitable distribution of national amenities to our rural masses. The support from panchayat level institutions and non-governmental organizations is essential for success in this campaign.

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