DHAKA: Nearly 230 million children under the age of five around the world have never had their birth registered, which often means they will be barred from education, health care and social security.

The UN children’s agency said, reports The Straits Times.

A report by UNICEF to mark its 67th birthday on Wednesday said globally that amounts to one in three children under five.

Last year, it said, only around 60 percent of all babies born were registered at birth, with the lowest levels of registration in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

UNICEF deputy director Geeta Rao Gupta said birth registration not only acknowledges a child’s identity and existence but is key ‘to guaranteeing that children are not forgotten, denied their rights or hidden from the progress of their nations’.

BDST: 1755 HRS, DEC 11, 2013