Registration of Births and deaths in India

Prelims (GS I) – Economic and social development | Demography.

Mains (GS I) – Population and associated issues.

Why in news?

Recently, the Registrar General of India (RGI), under the Union Home Ministry, issued directions to private and government hospitals to report incidents of births and deaths within 21 days.

• Registration of Birth and death –The Civil Registration System (CRS) in India, as the birth and death registration system, is a framework for recording vital events—births, deaths, and stillbirths.

Stillbirth is when a baby dies before she or he is born, after 28 weeks of pregnancy.

• CRS falls under the Concurrent list of the Constitution of India.
• Registrar – Government hospitals have been entrusted with the responsibility of functioning as registrar.
• Private hospitals are supposed to report the events in their jurisdiction to the registrar.
• Legal provision – Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act, 1969 mandates registration of all births and deaths.
• As per Section 23(2) of the RBD Act, negligence by the registrar in registering any birth or death is punishable with a fine.
• BDR 2023 amendment – It mandated all births and deaths in the country are to be digitally registered through the Civil Registration System portal.
• It also mandates RGI to maintain a database at the national level and it is obligatory that Chief Registrars and Registrars share the information with the Centre.

• Current status of registration – Approximately 10% of births and deaths remain unregistered in India despite legal requirements.
• 90% of birth or death events are getting registered which marks significant improvement from 2011, the registration levels were 82.4% for births and 66.4% for deaths.

Reference

The Hindu| Registration of Births and deaths in India