Samela Khatun (a pseudonym) is a school cleaner in Rajshahi aged around 69. Fearing that she will miss out on her pension benefits if her recorded age remains unchanged, Khatun applied to reduce her age on the national identity card by roughly 19 years to 50 and makes repeated trips from Rajshahi to the Election Commission’s NID wing in Dhaka’s Agargaon. But the documents filed with her application do not match, and the family details she supplied are inconsistent in several aspects.
Verification by commission officials showed her NID records her date of birth as November 6, 1957. She wants it changed to January 18, 1976, which would make her 50 years of age.
If approved, however, the change would leave her younger than her eldest child: her son’s NID shows his birth year as 1969, making him 57.
Khatun’s case is not an isolated incident. Applications to alter dates of birth have now become a heavy burden on the commission compared with routine requests to correct spelling mistakes or addresses.
Age Changes Expose Gaps in Identity Records
Officials say much of the volume stems from people who increased their age to obtain an NID to travel abroad and later tried to reduce it to match passports or educational certificates, or who want to extend their working lives or secure government and private benefits. Because such applications conflict with educational certificates, birth registrations, passports and family information, a large portion cannot be processed.
Tobarok Patwari (pseudonym) is an expatriate in Italy from Shariatpur who visited the commission’s office to also change his NID details. His national identity card gives his date of birth as April 15, 1987 and his educational qualification as secondary school level. In his correction application, he requested a birth date of June 10, 1997 and claimed to have studied up to class seven.
Patwari was registered as a voter in the national database in 2007, when, under the birth date he now proposes, he would have been just 10 years old.
The paperwork filed with his application is equally inconsistent. Although he became a voter in 2007, he submitted a birth certificate issued in 2018 and a 2024 passport to support his request. He also sought to correct his father’s name, but produced no proper supporting documents.
Musa Azam (pseudonym), another expatriate from the same district living in Italy, wants his age increased by seven years. His NID records a date of birth of April 1, 1994, which he has asked to be changed to April 1, 1987. The commission’s database, however, records his mother’s birth year as 1977, leaving a gap of just 10 years between mother and son under his proposed date. His documents are no more consistent: a voter since 2013, he based his claim on a birth certificate issued in 2017 and a 2022 passport.
Age limits for travel abroad are a major driver of such applications, election commission officials noted. Under the policy of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), labour visas for the Middle East require a minimum age of 21 and a maximum of 45, with 50 the ceiling for repeat travellers. In many cases, 16- or 17-year-olds are registered on their NIDs as 21, with ages increased by family members or brokers.
After several years working abroad, they return home or seek other benefits, produce an SSC certificate matching their true age and apply to have it reduced again.
Officials say the volume of age-correction applications is comparatively higher in Faridpur and Sylhet, which have large expatriate populations, though such requests are common across the country.
According to the NID wing’s figures, 6.5 million correction applications had been processed by last August, with some 150,000 currently pending at the commission. Between 60 and 70 percent concern changes to a date of birth or age. Around 80,000 fall into the ‘D’ category, which is overseen by the director general and can be resolved only at that level within the commission’s NID wing.
Officials say many applications in this category seek age changes that defy ordinary biology and family continuity. Some applicants end up younger than their own children, while others were entered on the voter roll while still minors.
Legal Risks and Passport Mismatch
Dr Qazi Zahed Iqbal, an advocate at the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, told Bonik Barta that producing and using forged papers to alter information on a national identity card or passport, or to lower an age, is a criminal offence punishable under the National Identity Registration Act and the Penal Code, with sentences varying according to the nature of the offence and the evidence.
A panel lawyer and adviser at the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), a human rights and legal aid organisation, said an abnormally narrow age gap presented through legal processes such as government records, NID corrections or court affidavits cannot be treated as a mere factual error.
“Where an individual or an organised ring is behind such fraud, they should be identified and brought to justice,” he said.
Zahed Iqbal believes the tendency to alter information in the national database and on identity cards creates more than administrative difficulties; it carries consequences for national security and the international sphere.
He added: “Questions may arise during the verification process for foreign travel, study, employment or migration where an individual’s age, name or identity details diverge across an NID, a passport and other documents. Ordinary citizens who are not involved in the fraud are also facing additional verification and complications as a result.”
This needs to be given due attention, he says, so that students, workers and tourists are not met with distrust or needless complications at foreign immigration because of fraud by a small minority.
Another source of complication is the mismatch between legacy passports and NID records. Between 2014 and 2019, the passport department issued large numbers of machine-readable passports (MRPs) on the strength of local birth certificates without cross-checking the NID database, according to officials. NID information is now mandatory for e-passports, bringing inconsistencies between old passport data and current identity cards to the fore.
Many expatriates are now applying to bring their NID records into line with their passports. The commission’s position, however, is firm. Officials say the national database takes precedence: NID records will not be altered to match passport data. Where the two diverge, it is the passport that must be brought into line with the NID.
Checks Now Go Beyond Documents
The election commission has tightened its scrutiny of corrections to block abnormal age adjustments. Secondary school certificates issued after 1996 and madrasah certificates issued after 1998 can be verified online. But where an applicant seeks to reduce an age by 15 years or more, decisions are not made on educational certificates alone. Family relationships and the consistency of the applicant’s age profile are also being examined.
Central to this is verification of the lineage or “family tree”. Officials cross-check whether an applicant ends up younger than their own child, whether the age gap between parent and child is abnormal, and whether the new age conflicts with the birth order of siblings. Where necessary, they request the NID numbers of parents, siblings and children, an heirship certificate if the father is deceased, and a family certificate if he is alive.
Applications involving substantial adjustments to a date of birth, a reduction in age combined with a complete change of name, or a Bangladesh Open University certificate are no longer decided at the upazila level but referred to the director general’s D category.
The commission also plans to build a “family tree” cluster database linking parents, siblings and children as new voters are registered and NIDs are renewed every 15 years. Work is also underway on a filtering system to prevent digital applications from being submitted without required documentation. Time limits have been set for disposal by category: 30 days for a category D application and a maximum of 45 days where the director general’s approval is required.
Akhtar Ahmed, senior secretary of the commission, told Bonik Barta: “The Election Commission is working on this. A family tree will make the process easier and help verify that family information is consistent. It’s not a sudden decision; the initiative was taken in a planned way.”