Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act, 1969

Context:

Recently, the Union Home Ministry proposed amendment to the Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act, 1969. The bill will be introduced in the winter session of parliament.

Relevance:

GS II: Government Policies and Interventions

Dimensions of the Article:

1. What changes are being proposed?
2. Need for the Amendments
3. About Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act, 1969

What changes are being proposed?

• It has been proposed to make birth certificates a mandatory document for almost every sphere of life — admission in educational institutions, inclusion in the voter list, appointment in Central and State government jobs, issue of driving licence and passport.
• It shall be mandatory for hospitals and medical institutions to provide a copy of all death certificates, stating the cause of death, to the local registrar apart from the relative of the deceased.
• The country’s birth registration level improved to 92.7% in 2019 from 82.0% in 2010, and the level of recorded deaths increased from 66.9% in 2010 to 92.0% in 2019, according to the Civil Registration System (CRS) report.
• CRS is an online system for registration of births and deaths under the operational control of the RGI.

Need for the Amendments

• The proposed amendments will make it possible for the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) Registrar General of India (RGI) to “keep a database of registered births and deaths at the national level.”
• The RGI will provide a birth and death database at the national level that may be used to update the Aadhar, ration card, passport, driving licence, population register, and electoral register databases.
• If the changes are made, the Center might use the information to update the National Population Register (NPR), which was created in 2010 and updated in 2015 via door-to-door enumeration.
• According to the Citizenship Rules of 2003, the NPR is the first step toward the formation of a National Register of Citizens, and it already has

About Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act, 1969

• Registration of Births and Deaths in India is mandatory with the enactment of RBD, Act 1969 and is done as per the place of occurrence of the event.
• The RBD Act mandates that births and deaths be registered by the States.
• Facilities have been set up by state governments for keeping records of births, deaths, and registrations.
• Every State appoints a Chief Registrar who is in charge of carrying out the Act’s provisions.
• The work is performed by a hierarchy of authorities at the district and lower levels.
• The RGI, chosen in accordance with this Act, is in charge of organising and unifying the RBD Act’s execution.

-Source: The Hindu