Child grant receipt and birth registration in Nepal: evidence from the 2022 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey

BACKGROUND: In Nepal, a child grant program was introduced in 2009 to improve education and nutrition among disadvantaged children under the age of five while linking grant eligibility to birth registration as part of efforts to strengthen civil registration and vital statistics systems. OBJECTIVE: This study examined whether child grant receipt was associated with birth registration. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of data from the 2022 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey. The outcome was whether a child's birth had ever been registered with civil authorities. The main explanatory variable was whether the child had ever received a child grant. Child age, sex, maternal education, ethnicity, household wealth quintile, and province were included as covariates in multivariable logistic regression models. RESULTS: Among 5,064 included children, 72.8% had a reported registered birth. Registration was higher among children reported to have received a grant than among nonrecipients (93.6% versus 65.9%). Children reported to have received a grant had higher adjusted odds of registration than nonrecipients (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 6.75; 95% CI 5.14 to 8.85). Registration was 71.8% among children whose mothers had no education, 68.3% for grades 1 to 8, and 77.0% for education above grade 8. CONCLUSIONS: Child grant receipt was strongly associated with reported birth registration. Links between social protection and birth registration should be accompanied by accessible registration services and support for families facing documentation barriers.