More than half of children growing up on the streets in Bangladesh's slum areas do not have birth certificates, leaving many vulnerable to exclusion from education, healthcare, social protection and other essential state services.

A 2025 Caritas survey found that 58.2 percent of surveyed street children lacked birth certificates, while 91.7 percent of families living in slums remained outside government social protection programmes.

 The survey covered 667 street children and 1,246 families in Dhaka, Mymensingh and Rajshahi. It also found that 51.6 percent of the children were out of school.

The problem is particularly visible in Dhaka's slums, where documentation difficulties keep thousands of children outside the education system.

Bilqis Banu, an 18-year-old resident of Jhilpar Slum in Mirpur's Section 7, is already the mother of a three-year-old daughter. She was married at 15.

Ayesha, 16, whose family is from Rangpur, said girls from poor families in her village are often married off early. "Because we do not have birth certificates, we do not have to wait until we are 18" she said.

According to Ward No. 6 authorities, more than 50,000 people live in four slums covering around 25 acres, including more than 8,000 children aged eight to 10. Residents said most have never been registered at birth.

They also alleged that brokers demand 1,500 taka to facilitate registration that a cost many poor families cannot afford.

A field visit to Jhilpar, Chholontika and Arambagh slums found the problem widespread.

Residents said children unable to enroll in school because of documentation problems are increasingly exposed to mobile-phone addiction, child marriage, child labour and other vulnerabilities.

Mohammad Abdul Samad, secretary of Ward No. 6, said authorities are registering street children and children whose parents are absent.

The Office of the Registrar General of Births and Deaths said 40,000-50,000 birth registrations are completed nationwide every day. 

However, registering children from floating communities and families without permanent addresses remains a major challenge.

Under existing provisions, children can be registered based on their place of birth or current address. Yet many children from homeless and marginalised families remain outside the system in practice.

According to an analysis of the latest joint data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF, the national birth-registration rate among children under five is 59 percent, up from 56 percent in 2019.

Despite the progress, the rate remains well below universal coverage. Bangladesh has committed to achieving 100 percent birth and death registration by 2030 under the Sustainable Development Goals.

Registrar General of Births and Deaths and Local Government Division Additional Secretary Mohammad Zahid Hossain said Dhaka's relatively low registration rate is partly due to its transient population.

The government, he said, is working with local government institutions and voluntary development organisations to register members of floating communities and has arranged training for workers. The Dhaka North and South city corporations are primarily responsible for birth registration in the capital.

Theophil Nokrek, director of the Caritas Development Institute, said the problem is more than an administrative issue.

According to the Caritas survey, 71.4 percent of children without birth certificates do not know their parents' national identity card numbers, making registration under existing procedures extremely difficult.

"Not having a birth certificate is not merely an administrative problem; it is a human rights crisis," Nokrek said.

Without birth certificates, children have to face difficulties enrolling in school, accessing healthcare, receiving government allowances and obtaining citizenship-related services later in life.

Nokrek also highlighted a gap between the health and civil-registration systems. Hospitals and healthcare facilities are not authorised to complete birth and death registration, requiring families to visit separate government offices.

He said countries in the Asia-Pacific region have achieved higher registration rates by allowing hospitals to register births and deaths occurring at their facilities.

Caritas Bangladesh Director (Programme) Daud Jibon Dash called for simplified procedures for children without parents, door-to-door and ward-based registration campaigns and immediate birth registration at hospitals and community clinics.

He also recommended programmes to bring street children back from the streets, conditional cash assistance, stronger action against child labour, initiatives to return school dropouts to education and improved learning environments.

Dash said existing social safety-net allowances are inadequate for poor and vulnerable families.

"A monthly allowance of 500-650 taka under the social safety net can never be considered realistic or appropriate for the current times," he said.

Akhtarunnesa Sheuli, executive officer of Zone 10 of Dhaka South City Corporation, said Dhaka's lower registration rate is also linked to its large population of tenants and migrants from other districts.

The situation highlights the need for a simpler and more inclusive registration system so that poverty, homelessness or lack of documents does not deprive children of official identity and the rights that come with it.