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Reporting babies

Anil Kapoor has found a brand he wants to endorse — Indian children!

FOR A CAUSE Anil Kapoor

Approximately 26 million births take place every year in India. Some 12 million births don't get registered. The reasons are lack of awareness, problems of travelling the distance to the registration centres, complicated and time-consuming process or sheer lethargy.

After a thorough research that revealed startling facts about the lack of birth registration in India, Plan India, a 10-year-old independent, child-centred, non-government organisation, launched a nationwide campaign on Universal Birth Registration.

Celebrities for effect

The campaign that aims to achieve 100 per cent birth registration by 2010 has roped in film star Anil Kapoor as its goodwill ambassador. Besides, filmmaker Govind Nihalani, who is also a board member of Plan India, is helping spread the message of birth registration in every nook and cranny of the country.

Nihalani, who has directed two small films for the campaign, will be dubbing them in various regional languages.

Nihalani, explaining the campaign, said, "The most challenging task was to make the campaign reach the masses in the simplest language. The script was already worked upon by Plan India. We shot 90 seconds of film, in 60 and 30 seconds each. These will be aired on all channels."

RANA SIDDIQUI

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