VOA常速英语2014--亚洲希望改善出生登记问题

Asia Seeks to Improve Vital Birth Registrations 2 亚洲希望改善出生登记问题

SAMUT PRAKAN, THAILAND—

This week government ministers from Southeast Asia are meeting in Bangkok to discuss how to improve official registrations of births, deaths and marriages - critical measures for providing government services.

Thailand has had notable success but issues remain, especially with birth registrations for children of migrant workers.

Just hours after coming into the world, baby Edar is among the lucky ones. Her registration 1 process has already commenced - something that will prove vital for her chances to rise above a subsistence existence.

就在降生的几小时前，婴儿益达已经很幸运了，她的登记过程已经开始了，这就给她有机会超越最低生活提供了关键条件。

Edar's mother, a 30-year-old from Myanmar who has been working in Thailand for seven years, says she is aware of how critical the documentation will be for her second child.

益达的母亲今年30岁，她来自缅甸，在泰国已经工作7年了，她说自己意识到出生登记对这第二个孩子来说非常重要。

“Without a birth certificate, my child will not be able to go to school," she says, "previously 3 schools [in Thailand] would enroll 4 children who didn't have birth certificates. So everyone now should get the certificates for their babies."

“没有出生证，我的孩子就无法上学，以前泰国的学校不招收没有出生证的孩子，所以现在每个人都得为孩子办出生证。”

Less than enthusiastic

Some officials remain less than enthusiastic about certifying 5 non-Thai births, although the kingdom's law mandates 6 that all newborns, within 15 days, must be registered and given a national identification number.

一些官员仍对非泰婴儿的登记工作不上心，尽管该国法律规定所有新生儿都必须在出生15天内登记，并授予国民身份证号码。

“The message that we always emphasize is that birth registration is the right for every child whether they are Thai or non-Thai and that the hospital should do everything to help the parents," explaines Napat Phisanbut, UNICEF Thailand. "Especially those who don't speak Thai and might not know the process to understand what is the importance of birth registration and the process that they need to do.”

“我们一直强调的一点是，出生登记是每个孩子都享有的权利，无论他们是否是泰国人，医院应该尽一切努力帮助父母们，尤其是那些不会讲泰语、不了解登记程序的人，他们不知道出生登记的重要性，也不知道他们要经过哪些程序。”

However, about one-third of the births in this country by mothers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia are still not being processed. Sometimes this is due to discrimination; in other cases officials are neglectful or corrupt 7.

不过，该国的新生儿中有三分之一的婴儿仍无法登记，他们的母亲来自缅甸、老挝和柬埔寨，有时这是因为歧视，或者是官员玩忽职守或腐败。

The Samut Prakan Hospital's maternity 8 ward 9 has become a magnet for migrant workers due to its reputation for welcoming non-Thai expectant mothers.

Samut Prakan医院的产科病房音欢迎非泰预产妇而出名，因此吸引了很多移民工人。

Each month it delivers 150 babies who will not get Thai citizenship 10, but the government-run hospital ensures all are properly registered.

每个月这里都会降生150名没有得到泰国公民身份的婴儿，但这家公立医院确保所有婴儿都会得到登记。

“We have an online birth registration system to speed up the process between our hospital and the municipal government office, so the correct information can be processed quickly," says Sripapi Khlaidon, a hospital health officer. "This means no one has to go back and forth 11 between the hospital and the government center.”

“我们有在线出生登记系统，能加速医院和市政府办公室之间的程序，所以正确的信息就能得快速处理，这意味着人们无需在医院和政府之间来回奔波。”

Registration rates

While Thailand - where 95 percent of births occur in a hospital - is held up as a model case, some other Asian countries are faring relatively 12 poorly for birth registrations.

泰国95%的婴儿都是在医院降生的，该国现已成为榜样，其他的一些亚洲国家开始处理相对糟糕的出生登记问题。

In Nepal, it is at 42 percent. India had about the same rate until 2012, but new data about to be released is to show a substantial improvement.

That leaves Pakistan as faring the worst in Asia with just 27 percent of births being registered - a percentage ranking as the lowest in the world, except for some African countries and Yemen.

In light of that, delegates to this week's regional conference are to commit to universal registration by the year 2024.

考虑到这一现状，参加本周地区会议的代表们将承诺在2024年之前实现全体登记。