For the past 12 years, they were identified only as “ male or female.”
Now, officials involved in a project to regularise official birth certificates in Grenada, are also encountering situations where some people have double identities and some are even carrying wrong names on the documents they use as official transactions.
Head of the Births and Deaths Department here, Ann-Marie Mason, said that since the project began in January, hundreds of people have been seeking to regularise their status.
“We have had a significant increase in the number of persons visiting our office to get the official certificate. Those inquiring are revealing many things to us and are actually assisting us with identifying some of the 14,000 persons who according to the birth registration do not have a name.
“We are also identifying other problems, such as persons who are carrying the wrong name or surname and in a couple cases we identified persons who have two identities,” Mrs Mason said, adding the situation is not as a result of fraud.
Last year, the department started a project aimed at inserting the names of approximately 14,000 persons who were born over the past 12 years but only recorded as a male or female child.
“The Electoral Office only recognizes official documents which contain the Government seal and it is in acquiring the official certificate we are realizing the situation,” she said, hoping that at the end of the project people would have in their possession the proper documents.
“In the end we will have not just a clean voter’s list but also an updated birth list,” Mrs Mason said.
Deputy Supervisor of Election Ada Holder said that her office was only made fully aware of the situation when the regularisation process started.
“What we have observed is that most of those with the name problem are those whose parents did not complete the registration of the child and when the child began school, the school accepted the baptismal certificate to confirm the child’s name. So this person has two identities and our new digital system is able to flag that quickly,” she said.
