In New Delhi, it is estimated that “60 percent of the city’s inhabitants live in homes that are unregistered – in slums, in unauthorized developments or in unplanned and unsafe buildings... Because these areas do not officially exist, they have no safe water supply, no legal electricity system and no proper sewers... no good roads were ever built for them."

Amelia Gentleman
New York Times

In Brazil, an estimated 20 million people, nearly 10% of the total population, are not registered into ‘the system.’ The favelas or shantytowns “do not have access to basic services, asphalt, schools, healthcare, day-care centers, education...the favela is the absence of rights, of citizenship."

Jailson de Souza e Silva
Social Network of Justice and Human Rights 

According to UNICEF, 66 percent of children in Sub-Saharan Africa are not registered at birth. As a result, they are often the “first to be denied inheritance when orphaned by AIDS” and “more vulnerable to hazardous working conditions, to forced recruitment in armed conflicts and to trafficking.”

Carol Bellamy and John Greensmith
International Herald Tribune