Birth Certificate ; Date of Birth

In old days in my town, children were born at home in natural Birth with minimum assistance from the local experienced midwives ( dayees) in the town. No health facility like hospital, maternity centre or a clinic in the town. The child and mother used to be separated for ten days from the rest of the family, most probably for hygienic  reasons to take precaution for the health of the child and the mother. They used to join the family only after ten days or so. ( It was only after forty days later that the child and mother were supposed to go out of the house for the first time, normally used to visit a temple and perform some kind of worship ). On that day , a ritual of naming ceremony of the child used to be done by performing some kind of pooja and havan etc. Pandit ji used to prepare the horoscope with usual details about the birth of the child. so, at least we used to have some kind of record in the family.During 1930s and for long time even later, there was no standard system of recording the Date of Birth of the children in our town. There was no clock and watch in the town to record the Time of Birth. It was all approximate. Though, there was an office of the Town Area supposed to keep the record of any births or deaths in the town.But it was never done and hence no record.Therefore, no Birth Certificate or Death Certificate for a person from any Government office or agency could be available or issued ..

Only standard and authentic source of getting the record of Date of Birth was the Primary School Register where the DOB of the child was randomly and approximately recorded by the Head Master as the parents also may not be knowing exact DOB at the time of admission in the school.Most of us, the children of our time have wrongly recorded DOB. No standard or any kind of admission form for the admission in the school, hence no records of any kind of details. Therefore, many of us have even wrong spellings in the names of the individuals and their parents. This.official record is carried to Junior High School and then to High School records. It was quite possible to change any personal details till the Examination Forms for High School are filled up and submitted to the examination Board. After the Certificate for High Examination is issued by the Examination Board, it used to be permanent official record  for all other purposes in future- like Graduate Exam Certificate, Passport etc. 

I am sure that most of the people contemporary of my age carry wrong record of their DOB, When ever, any of us was asked to submit such certificate, there was no way to do that except the court affidavit in lieu of.,Same problem and solution for the Birth and Death Certificates for the parents when ever they were required to be submitted.

Any way most of us celebrate two Birth Days, one official and one the real one.