In News:

• The Central government is planning to revamp the Civil Registration System (CRS) to enable the registration of birth and death in real-time.
  
  

What’s in Today’s Article:

• Civil Registration System – About, Recent initiatives to strengthen CRS, Proposed amendment to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969
  
  
• News Summary
  
  

In Focus: Civil Registration System (CRS) in India

About

• With the enactment of the Registration of Births and Death Act (RBD Act) in 1969, the registration of births, deaths and still births have become mandatory in India.
  
  
• The Registrar General, India (RGI) at the Central Government level coordinates and unifies the activities of registration throughout the country.
  • The Chief Registrar is mandated to publish a statistical report on the registered births and deaths during the year.
    
    
  
  
  
• However, implementation of the statute is vested with the State Governments.
  • The registration of births and deaths in the country is done by the functionaries appointed by the State Governments.
    
    
  
  
  

Recent initiatives to strengthen CRS

• Uniform Software Application for Registration of Births and Deaths
  • A software application for online and offline registration of birth and death has been developed.
    
    
  • The application that is presently available in English is being customized in 13 Indian languages.
    
    
  
  
  
• Database of Institutions
  • A nationwide database of medical Institutions has been prepared.
    
    
  • The plan is to electronically monitor the registration of events occurring in these institutions through an ICT enabled platform.
    
    
  
  
  
• Application to Monitor Institutional Events
  • An SMS based application called "Event Monitoring System for Registration" has been developed and is currently under pilot testing.
    
    
  
  
  
• Data digitization
  • Project to keep old records in easy to retrieve digital form has been started.
    
    
  • This will help in storage of registers in electronic format and allow easy access to the records.
    
    
  
  
  
• National Population Register
  • The Civil Registration System has been linked to the NPR.
    
    
  
  
  

Proposed amendment to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969

• The RGI that functions under the MHA has proposed amendment to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969.
  
  
• This amendment will enable it to maintain the database of registered birth and deaths at the national level.
  
  
• According to the proposed amendment, the database may be used to update the Population Register, Electoral Register, Aadhar, Ration Card, Passport and Driving License databases.
  
  

News Summary

• According to the 2020-21 annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the government is planning to automate the Civil Registration System (CRS).
  
  
• This will enable the registration of birth and death in real-time with minimum human interface.
  
  

Key Highlights of the report

• Challenges faced by CRS in current form
  • The CRS system is facing challenges in terms of timelines, efficiency and uniformity, leading to delayed and under-coverage of birth and death.
    
    
  
  
  
• Need to introduce transformational changes in CRS
  • For providing prompt service delivery to the public, the Government of India has decided to introduce transformational changes in the CRS.
    
    
  • This will be done through an IT enabled backbone which will enable registration of birth and death in real-time basis with minimum human interface.
    
    
  
  
  
• Changes will be related to the automation of the processes
  • The report said the changes would be in terms of automating the process delivery points so that the service delivery was time-bound, uniform and free from discretion.
    
    
  • The changes would be sustainable, scalable and independent of the location.
    
    
  
  
  
• Need to update the NPR again
  • The CRS is linked to the National Population Register (NPR), which already has a database of 119 crore residents.
    
    
  • The report said there was a need to update the NPR again to incorporate the changes due to birth, death and migration.
    • NPR was first collated in 2010 and updated in 2015 with Aadhaar, mobile and ration card numbers.
      
      
    • The NPR was to be updated with the decennial Census exercise that has been postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
      
      
    
    
    
  
  
  
• Registered births and deaths had witnessed a steady increase
  • The report noted that the proportion of total registered births and deaths had witnessed a steady increase over the years.
    • The registration level of births has increased to 89.3% in 2018 from 81.3% in 2009.
      
      
    • On the other hand, the registration level of deaths has increased from 66.9% in 2009 to 86.0% in 2018.
      
      
    
    
    
  • It pointed out, adding that the level of total registration of deaths was lower than that of births in most of the States.
    • This may partly be attributed to non-reporting of domiciliary deaths and deaths of females and infants.