Delhi

the name of parents because if parents have residence and ration card, the child names would automatically be included in ration cards and domicile certificates. e) Receiving caste certificate for children in Hyderabad Rainbow

Homes without any documental proof was difficult even after furnishing letter from organization mentioning caste based on School

Records and affidavit in stamp paper about non-availability of paternal or blood relatives’ documents. In certain cases, Village Revenue officials, during their inspection in Rainbow Homes instructed the staff to apply for

Orphan Certificate under BCA, instead of caste certificates. f) The District Probation Office of GHMC organized campaign in Hyderabad and promised to provide Birth Certificate to all children of CCIs without Birth Records. Staff were asked to provide the list of children without birth proof or Aadhar card. The District Probation

Officer informed that GHMC would call them to take the children to Medical Officer of

GHMC who would do the age determination tests after which certificates could be issued to those children. However, even after six months from the date of campaign by GHMC, neither any information was received by home team from GHMC, nor any Government official visited the homes.

Few young adults had Transfer Certificate from schools mentioning the caste as ‘Scheduled Caste’ whereas during admission to colleges, they furnished Orphan certificates along with TC to get fee concession and seat reservation. These contradictory documents were not accepted by the college authority and young adults were asked to include orphan status in Transfer Certificates which the School Managements opposed. -Social

Mobiliser, Rainbow Homes, Hyderabad

Successes

a) With introduction of application for NABC (Non-Availability of Birth Certificates), many of the children without parents or proper birth proof could access this alternative certificate physically from Deputy Health Officer at MCD or through online application. Few children without any birth proof could also access their Birth Certificates in Delhi furnishing Home

Management Letter for Residence Proof, bonafide certificate from school and declaration letters from CWC. In cases of children into open schooling, CWC certification mentioning that children are in Rainbow Homes and enrolled in open schooling was sufficient to access Birth Certificate. b) In cases of discrepancies in legal identity documents for young adults in Delhi, CWC letters were not required. The staff and young adults, who were interviewed mentioned that they easily re-applied for modifications with photograph along with a letter from organization/home and the changes were made by the officials

c) Incidences of bribing the officials or paying arbitrary amounts to the agents by parents was not observed in Delhi because whoever could avail certificates in Delhi, could access going by the government’s laid down process.

Challenges

a) Initial process of birth registration for the first few YAs in Delhi was very troublesome.

Home team had to shuffle between the Tehsildar’s office and other authorities for three year. The team faced refusal to process the forms of the YAs because according to the officials, provision for alternative registration did not exist for citizens without birth proof and there were no guidelines by the center for processing those late registrations.

Declarations from CWC was submitted to the Tehsildar in MCD because the officer said that applications for children without birth proof were to be approved by Central

Government, after that MCD could arrange camp in Rainbow Homes to issue certificates to all. But one year passed and no information came from MCD. The team met the officials and handed over a list of children (orphan, with parents, single parents, with relatives).

MCD told to apply in bulk number with filled in application forms for these children.

Ultimately with proper list of children with parents’ background, CWC letters, the home team could make Birth Certificates for 100 children together. b) In case of a girl, the name of parents in school record was wrongly registered and not corrected before board examination registration in class 9. As a result, Class10 mark sheet had wrong name of parents, which posed an issue for registration of Birth Certificate.

Principal of the school said that the rectification would be done by Municipal Corporation of Delhi against a letter from CWC confirming the name of the parents. However, CWC did not have any concrete proof of names to authorize a letter and hence did not provide any declaration. On the other hand, MCD clarified that the school Principal concerned is responsible for any change in mark sheet. Ultimately, no solution was found for the girl and she did not receive Birth Certificate. c) Another two YAs of Kilkari Rainbow Homes faced similar problem since parents’ names between these two girls got exchanged in their school records. The staff of the home went to the Principal of the school as well as to CWC for rectifications, but by the time Birth

Certificates for both the girls were already received with wrong names of parents and both the girls reached 9th class. The Principal of the school could not make any changes as the details were already sent online to CBSE board for registration. Hence, parents’ names of these two girls in their school leaving certificates came different, as per the school records. d) The team in Delhi struggled to get any alternatives to access fee concession or seat reservations for children without parents as there is no Orphan policy or Government order towards issuance of orphan certificate in Delhi. According to few officials interviewed for the study, “someday or the other the orphan children would either be adopted by some parents or would be rehabilitated to foster families. Why would they