Puri: A six-year-old boy has been denied admission in a primary school, thanks to the faux pas of the health office run by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC). It issued a ‘Death Certificate’ for the boy instead of a birth certificate.
The boy’s family being illiterate was unaware of what was stated in the certificate and approached the school authorities for admission, but was turned away. The matter came to the fore after social worker Sushil Kumar Sahoo came to know of the child’s plight.
According to the family, the boy Ashish Kumar Mishra was born at Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar August 7, 2012. Instead of issuing a birth certificate to the boy, the health office issued a death certificate. The family took the certificate home, not knowing what it was.
Six years later, Ashish’s family approached a school to enroll him in a primary school at their village in Bamadeipur under Sakhigopal police limits in Puri district. The school authorities rejected the boy’s admission, saying the death certificate was of no help in this respect.
Ashish’s grandmother Basanti said the family is peeved that a death certificate was issued to their child instead of a birth certificate. “What will he do in the future? As per government records, my grandson is dead.”
Social worker Sushil Kumar Sahoo said, “The child’s schooling would be delayed by one year. We request the administration to intervene and resolve the matter.”