Sri Lanka’s Registrar General's Department has issued a statement clarifying initial reports that all new birth certificates will not refer to any race or religion and will issued as “Sri Lankan,” in a move that has raised concern over the erasure of ethnic identities on the island.
Ethnic group and details related to marriage were initially reported to be removed from the application form, Newswire reported. However, earlier today the Registrar General’s Department stated that they would remain, following remarks from Sinhala nationalist politicians including Wimal Weerawansa. A new digital birth certificate system is set to be introduced following the conclusion of the 2020 general election.
Tamil activists had expressed concern that amidst renewed Sinhalisation efforts by the state, Tamil and Muslim identities may be erased, alongside making it more difficult to monitor racist incidents and demographic changes.
Decades of intense Sinhalisation and colonisation from state sponsored settlement schemes have drastically shifted the ethnic makeup of areas in the North-East which have been historically claimed as Tamil.
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