MoSA Accompanies Local Government to Register the Residents, Making Sure Newborn Babies Get the State’s Assistance

PEKALONGAN (July 31, 2023) - The cases of newborn babies (BBL) whose National Identification Number (NIK) haven’t been registered for more than three months from a mother who is registered in Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS) dan Premium Assistance Recipients of National Health Insurance (PBI-JK) are still frequently found.

When in fact, a baby of a mother registered in Integrated Social Welfare Data and Premium Assistance Recipients of National Health Insurance is able to directly get the assistance despite of not having National Identification Number. However, the chance is only valid for three months. If the baby hasn’t been registered in population data and hasn’t owned National Identification Number, the newborn baby is no longer allowed to be registered as Premium Assistance Recipients of National Health Insurance, and no longer registered in Integrated Social Welfare Data.

However, there are quite big number of babies who haven’t owned National Identification Number recently. Thus, the local government is unable to verify and validate the babies and register them into Integrated Social Welfare Data.

Therefore, Ministry of Social Affairs through Social Welfare Data and Information Center (Pusdatin Kesos) collaborates with Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration of Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Health, Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture, Central Social Security Administrator to accompany the parents in registering the newborn’s National Identification Number on Social Welfare Information System – Next Generation (SIKS-NG) application.

According to the Head of Data and Information Center, Agus Zainal Arifin, the accompaniment is required to make sure that verification dan validation run optimally as the government’s representation on handling problems of underprivileged and poor newborns.

“There should be an accompaniment. Ministry of Social Affairs has succeeded in establishing Integrated Social Welfare Data and Premium Assistance Recipients of National Health Insurance every month. However, there are still unregistered newborn babies because the babies don’t have National Identification Numbers,” Agus says in an accompaniment event in Pekalongan.

National Identification Number is required, especially to make sure that the newborn babies who have accepted Premium Assistance Recipients of National Health Insurance assistance are still able to receive the assistance continuously. “When the assistance distributes continuously, it will be able to reduce the health burden of the families registered in Integrated Social Welfare Data because this is also an assistance funded by the government,” he says.

“It’s a pity that they have no access to health services while they have a health problem. We fear that there’s a possibility of chronic disease to occur in the future,” he continues. The event is held to solve the problems mentioned. Therefore, the newborn babies can be registered and have their own National Identification Number to protect Indonesian children and guarantee their rights to access various state facilities, especially the health facility.

On the same occasion, Regional Secretary of Pekalongan Regency, Yulian Akbar, expresses his enthusiasm for the event. “We gladly welcome the Head of Data and Information Center, the ministry, and also another institution’s initiative. This becomes an energy booster to quickly complete the newborn babies’ National Identification Number registration,” he says.

Yulian states that the local government of Pekalongan Regency commits to quickly completing the newborn babies’ data verification and validation. “We will go through the process once again, filtering the entitled person to get assistance from government’s program. We can’t let people who are not entitled to get assistance are the ones getting the benefit of the programs related to social assistance, “he says. 

“In line, Deputy Assistant of Social Security of Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture, Dyah Tri Kumolosari, says that the presence of state’s government is to synergize with local government for newborn babies’ registration acceleration.

“We do this to make sure that we, who work at the state in Jakarta, can synergize with our friends in Pekalongan Regency so that the newborn babies will be able to both own National Identification Number and also be registered in Family Card of the families receiving Premium Assistance Recipients of National Health Insurance,” Dyah says.

Dyah also appreciates the Ministry of Social Affairs who initiates the event. The families of the unregistered babies are also present. Furthermore, the babies will be registered on Population and Civil Registration Office’s application. Thus, the babies will get their National Identification Number and they will be registered on their parents’ Family Card.

Nurul Hadi (37) and Sulistiawati (18) acknowledge the benefit of the event. “When I got married, I had to go to the Religious Affairs Office back and forth because my wife was still 16 years old. So, we haven’t had the time to make a birth certificate and National Identification Number for our child. Thank you, God. Everything is solved in a day through this event,” Hadi, the father of Kamil Malik (4 months old), says.

Another resident, Dewi Supriatiningsih is assisted through this event. The 27 years old woman feels grateful that she can unite her husband and her children under the same Family Card. “I’m so happy because my husband works far away. Therefore, we won’t be able to administer anything. When we got an invitation from the head chef, we straightly went here. The Family Card and birth certificates are done in a day,” she says. She also takes this opportunity to register her 5-month-old baby.

Every citizen is required to have residence documents. The documents are the personal identity and also show nationality status. Children included, as stated in articles 5 and 27 of Laws Number 23 of 2002 on Children Protection which states that ‘Every child deserves a name as a personal identity and nationality status.’

Hence, National Identification Number becomes a Single Identity Number (SIN) as a key access for every citizen (children, adults, and elderly) to get various public services, including health service access.