HYDERABAD: The Sindh government has completed the province’s first-ever real-time digital birth registrations in major public teaching hospitals, describing it as a landmark step in public sector reform and digital governance, said an official announcement issued here on 21 Feb.
Four newborns were registered digitally immediately after birth at Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro/Hyderabad, and Ghulam Mohammad Mahar Medical College Hospital, Sukkur, it added.
The registrations were processed through the National Database and Registration Authority’s (Nadra) Birth Notification Tool (BNT), representing the first operational milestone under Sindh’s reformed Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) framework and setting a benchmark for integrated, technology-based public service delivery in the province.
The government said the achievement is part of the CRVS pilot project launched in July 2025 with technical support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The project aims to strengthen legal identity coverage, improve service delivery and modernise governance through digital integration.
LUMHS, Sukkur hospital record first paperless birth notifications under integrated digital framework
The real-time digital birth registration system has been operationalised under a trilateral agreement between the Sindh Health Department, Nadra and the Local Government & Housing Town Planning Department. Under the agreement, civil registration has been integrated directly into health facilities, allowing births to be registered immediately, securely and without paperwork at the place of occurrence.
By digitising birth notifications at source, the reform reduces delays, minimises manual errors, improves transparency and enhances the reliability of official data for planning purposes. Officials said it also safeguards every child’s right to legal identity from birth, reinforcing the province’s commitment to inclusive governance.
According to the announcement, the Sindh CRVS Task Force was constituted under the vision of Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and on the directives of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to oversee the reform process.
The task force was formally notified in June 2025 under the chairmanship of the Sindh chief secretary. It is supervising phased implementation under the Sindh CRVS Scale-Up Plan, which forms part of broader digitisation and governance reforms in the public sector.
The pilot phase began in Hyderabad and Matiari in July 2025, where staff from 36 public sector health facilities were trained to operate the system. The first integrated real-time digital birth registration under the reformed CRVS framework was recorded at the provincial government hospital, Qasimabad, paving the way for province-wide expansion.
In the first phase of formal rollout, 14 tertiary care hospitals have been electronically linked with Nadra. Lumhs and Ghulam Mohammad Mahar Medical College Hospital have successfully recorded real-time digital birth notifications, indicating the system’s operational readiness.
The second phase will extend the system to 19 major hospitals, 16 district headquarters hospitals and 53 tehsil headquarters hospitals, followed by rural health centres, basic health units and maternal and child health centres.
The Sindh government aims to achieve 95 per cent birth registration coverage by 2028, with the ultimate goal of 100pc digital registration across all public and private health facilities in the province.
The officials described the initiative as a foundational reform aligning health services, local government structures and national identity management systems within a unified digital framework.
The chief secretary emphasised that the Sindh government had approved dedicated funds to support the implementation and expansion of the CRVS digital registration system across the province, ensuring its sustainability and long-term institutionalisation.
The digital registration of the first four newborns, the officials said, represents not just a technological upgrade but a step towards universal legal identity, more accurate demographic data and improved public service delivery in Sindh.
Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2026.
