CHENNAI: United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) statistics show that the birth of one in three children below the age of five years is not registered, globally. In India, nearly 60 per cent of the births are unregistered.
The denial of a fundamental human right of registration at birth inspired dentist Dr Jayakumar Jayaraman to look for a way to address the issue. However, what set the ball rolling for the dentist was the age verification issue with one of the accused in the Delhi rape case during the trial.
“In the rape case, a bone test was suggested to assess the age of the accused. The method is inaccurate. If such a test is done on a child with any vitamin deficiency or malnourishment, it cannot produce accurate results. Australia has banned this test on illegal immigrants as it is inaccurate,” said Dr Jayakumar, who hails from Chennai and works out of Hong Kong.
Dr Jayakumar, who has done PhD on dental age assessment in London, started a charity organisation called Date of Birth Foundation a year ago. The Foundation promotes universal birth registration and offers assessment of age through dental X-rays.
According to Jayakumar, age verification by assessing the root of the teeth is a better option. He, along with Dr Ekta Priya, who is the organisation’s in-charge in India, assessed the age of 50 children belonging to the Irula community living in Nandiambakkam, a village near Minjur in Tiruvallur district, recently. The birth of these children was not registered and the Foundation assessed their age through dental X-rays. The doctors had earlier certified the age for 50 children in a day care centre in Redhills.
“The age is assessed through the root of the teeth. Usually, age is assessed by doctors by seeing the eruption of the third molar. However, assessment through root development is the most precise evidence-based methodology, and is accurate to about three months,” said Dr Jayakumar. However, it has its limitations. The test cannot be done on individuals aged above 24 years.
Through the Foundation, Dr Jayakumar has organised workshops for dentists in the city on dental age assessment, a subject that is included in the BDS curriculum.
With the next project in the offing at Cambodia, Dr Jayakumar is now working towards proposing the methodology to the Government of India to estimate the age of millions of children without birth certificates. “Assessment through dental X-rays can help during mass destruction, identification of human remains, legal issues and illegal immigration. We are working towards making the government take it up as a policy,” said the dentist.