New life with ID cards
The community of Ishaque Indhar, a flood affected village of Sindh, saw new hope as their registration for Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs) began by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), through Mobile Registration Vans (MRVs) right at their doorstep.
“We didn’t know the importance of CNIC before the interventions of World Vision,” says Fareeda Khatoon. World Vision (WV) advocacy team had conducted an assessment of the village and found that more than 30% of the community (70% of that were women) did not have the CNIC.
Looking at the facts and realizing the problem was that most people do not know why they need CNIC, WV advocacy team initiated the ‘Nai Zindagi’ (New life) project with the goal of creating an environment in which communities’ (especially women and children) rights are protected. Awareness seminars were organized by World Vision in flood affected areas to enhance the sense of citizenship among the people and to make them aware of the importance of Identity.
After conducting the awareness seminars, WV advocacy team signed an agreement with NADRA to arrange the issuing of the CNICs for free to three flood affected districts of Sindh through MRVs. MRVs were selected because the majority of the flood affected communities of targeted districts are vulnerable and located in rural places where they don’t have easy access to transportation.
The process started with an announcement in the village informing people that the WV team along with MRV of NADRA had arrived. People who were eligible to get the CNIC gathered in an open field of the village.
“It’s a legal document which proves your Identity."
“It’s a legal document which proves your Identity, if you go to anyplace you will need it (CNIC) for proving your identity,” replied Juman Khatoon, when she was asked why she wants to have one.
She further said, “We were not aware that how valuable this document (CNIC) is? When flood came in our area and rehabilitation work started. Lot of humanitarian aid agencies along with Government came here and started relief work. The aid was given to those who were having the CNICs but lot of people didn’t have CNICs! This was the point when we realized the importance of Identity card,” explained Juman Khatoon.
“Soon after the floods, World Vision team came to us and explained that if you will be having the CNICs you can enjoy the citizenship rights like education, health, utilities, voting right and other facilities because government allocates resources according to the population and if you don’t have CNIC means you are not counted in population.”
After hearing this from WV, the community realized the importance of CNIC. They wanted to be counted in the population of the country but this was not easy as the nearest NADRA office is located at a distance of 35 km and people of Ishaque Indhar don’t have any transportation. The only means for reaching the NADRA office is to hire a motorbike which will charge PKR 400 (US $4.44) for a two hour bike ride, one way.
“I have gone to NADRA office for three times but couldn’t get the CNIC,” says Fehmeeda Khatoon, who spent hours in queue and when her turn came the office closed, so she had to return home without CNIC.
“I am happy today as I don’t have to pay the motorbike fare and I don’t have to wait for hours in queue, I have given all the required information to NADRA-MRV officials and they’ve processed my CNIC. All this happened in just 10 minutes which is amazing,” commented Fehmeeda Khatoon.
"We’ve got our identity without facing any difficulty; all this happened just because of World Vision."
“We’ve got our identity without facing any difficulty; all this happened just because of World Vision. We are really grateful to you (World Vision) for helping us in gaining our Identity,” remarked the community members of Ishaque Indhar.
In total, 198 computerized national identity cards were issued in Ishaque Indhar through the mobile registration van service. World Vision’s Identity card registration helped 2,000 people in 12 flood affected villages of Sindh.
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