The Election Commission (EC) is drawing up a major plan to bring students of government primary schools under national identity card (NID) services, with a proposal to register minors aged 6 to 16 in the first stage. No final decision has been taken yet.
Senior Election Commission officials spoke of the plan on Saturday (7 November).
According to EC sources, the matter was discussed in detail at a recent policy meeting of the commission. At the meeting, EC secretary Akhtar Ahmed formally put forward the proposal for NID registration of minors. He said registration could start directly at government primary schools to make it easier to build a database of 6 to 16-year-olds.
Following the meeting’s decision, Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah, who chairs the committee on information technology in national ID, voter lists and election management, ordered a detailed workshop on the issue. The director general of the National Identity Registration Wing (NID wing) has been tasked with drawing up practical recommendations based on the views of stakeholders and experts.
At present the EC lets citizens get a national ID card at 17, and names are added to the voter list automatically at 18. But various groups have been calling for younger people to be brought under the NID system too, for access to civic services and proof of identity. In light of those calls, the commission is now actively moving on registering minors.
According to the EC’s latest updated figures, the country has 128,777,643 voters: 65,510,665 men, 63,265,711 women and 1,267 third-gender voters.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report