Brasília - A birth certificate is the first entryway to citizenship, but it is estimated that three million people in Brazil don't possess this document. For this reason, the Special Secretariats of Human Rights, Promotion of Social Equality, and Women, and the Ministries of Agrarian Development, Social Development and Hunger Alleviation, Education, and Defense, with the support of non-governmental organizations and social movements, launched a campaign on Friday (6) to encourage the registration of births in rural areas.

Minister Nilmário Miranda of the Special Secretariat of Human Rights states that only with a birth certificate can a person have access to federal government social benefits, in addition to its constituting a starting point for the acquisition of other documents, such as working papers, an ID card, and voter registration.

The campaign, according to the Minister, will afford citizenship to millions of Brazilians, who can obtain the document at no cost. Many of these individuals live in the countryside and reside in agrarian reform camps and settlements, so the civil registry campaign will be directed at rural workers.

Miranda also informed that mobile registry offices will be set up in settlements and camps.

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Rosamélia de Abreu
Translator: David Silberstein
08/09/2004