Mumbai: KEM's 'birth control' leaves boy in a crisis

Mohammed Afez Khan just wants his grandson Dilnawaz Shaikh to have the opportunity to go to school. But Khan cannot get a birth certificate for the five-year-old, as KEM Hospital - where Shaikh was born in August 2010 - has no record of his birth.

Sisraat Jahan and Mohammed Afez Khan, grandparents of Dilnawaz have been trying to get his birth certificate for the last five years

KEM claims they do not have any data about his birth. On Thursday, Khan went to KEM, visited one department after another, requesting doctors and officers to provide them the right document so that they could get Shaikh's birth certificate and admit him in a school.

"I have been doing the rounds of the hospital for the past five years but despite this, no one has come to help us. The hospital provided us the wrong documents while discharging him. Now, they are saying that they do not have data about his birth on the day," Khan said.

Shaikh was born on August 16, 2010 at KEM hospital but the diagnosis in his discharge certificate from the hospital was listed as ‘malaria' instead and he was termed as a one-year-old, when his existence was only 48 hours long.

"On the day my grandson was discharged, he was only two-days-old, then how can he become a one-year-old? They made a mistake in providing the discharge certificate, because of which we have been suffering for five years," said grandmother Sisraat Jahan.

BMC can't help either
As the certificate provided by the hospital does not state that Shaikh was born in the hospital, even the BMC cannot provide a birth certificate. "In 2010, when Dilnawaz was born, we didn't notice the discharge documents properly as it is written in English and so we didn't even understand it. But later, when we went to BMC to take the birth certificate of the child, we were first told that the hospital didn't give the right documents," said Khan.

When mid-day spoke to the administration department of the hospital, an official said, "We have checked our database but cannot find the name of child in it, except for his malaria documents, which state that he was one-year-old in 2010."

Other kids have proof
Now, because of the confusion and goof up of the documents, the family is unable to admit the child in any school, as it is compulsory to submit the birth certificate for admission. "After Shaikh, my daughter gave birth to two other children in KEM hospital and we have received their birth certificates from BMC. I don't know how Dilnawaz would get admission in a school without the birth certificate. In fact, he would never be able to get admission in a good school under Right to Education (RTE)," said Khan.

KEM says
Dr Avinash Supe, dean of KEM said, "I am not aware of the incident. Many a time, people also lie to get birth certificates from the hospital, so we have to examine it."