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Civil Registration System (CRS)

Posted on April 28, 2022 by admin1  1938

In News

  • The Union government plans to revamp the Civil Registration System (CRS) to enable real-time recording of birth and deaths, the annual report of the Home Ministry mentioned.

About the report

  • The CRS is run by the Registrar General of India and is linked with the National Population Register (NPR), which already has the data of 119 crore residents.
  • The report also highlighted a need to update the NPR, which was first collated in 2010 and was then updated in 2015 with the Aadhar card, mobile numbers and ration card numbers.

Amendments to Act

  • Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969: The Registrar General of India which currently functions under the Home Ministry has proposed amendments to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, that would enable it to maintain the database.
  • The database may be used to update the Population Register, Electoral Register, Aadhar, Ration Card, Passport and Driving License databases.
  • The registration of birth and death is mandatory under the RBD Act and the Chief Registrar is mandated to publish a statistical report on the registered births and deaths during the year.
  • The RGI is empowered under Section 3(3) of the 1969 Act to take steps to coordinate and unify the activities of Chief Registrars of Births and Deaths of all States.

Key Facts

  • The MHA 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.
  • The registration level of deaths has increased from 66.9% in 2009 to 86.0% in 2018.
  • Lower level of death registration may partly be attributed to non-reporting of domiciliary deaths and deaths of females and infants.

Challenges

  • The CRS system faces challenges in terms of: timeliness, efficiency and uniformity, leading to delayed under-coverage of birth and death.
  • System being compromised: Several states had reported instances of the online registration system being compromised because the login IDs of the registrars and their passwords were available in the public domain.

Way forward/ Suggestions

  • IT-enabled backbone: To address the challenges faced by the system in providing prompt service delivery to the public, the government of India has decided to introduce transformational changes in CRS through an IT-enabled backbone leading to registration of birth and death on a real-time basis with minimum human intervention.
  • Automating the process: The changes would be in terms of automating the process of delivery points so that the service delivery is time-bound, uniform and free from discretion.
  • Implementation: It remains to be seen how the automation procedure would be implemented in tier-2, tier-3 cities and rural areas, where the technology penetration is way lower than the urban and metropolitan cities.

Civil Registration System in India

  • History: The history of the Civil Registration System (CRS) in India dates back to the middle of the 19th century.
    • In 1886 a Central Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act was promulgated to provide for voluntary registration throughout British India.
  • Post-independence: the Registration of Births and Death Act (RBD Act) was enacted in 1969 to promote uniformity and comparability in the registration of Births and Deaths across the country and compilation of vital statistics based thereon.
    • With the enactment of the Act, registration of births, deaths and stillbirths has become mandatory in India.
  • Registration: The Registrar General, India (RGI) at the Central Government level coordinates and unifies the activities of registration throughout the country.
    • 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.
  • Uniform birth and death reporting: The Act mandates the use of uniform birth and death reporting forms and certificates throughout the country.

Initiatives

  • Uniform Software Application for Registration of Births and Deaths: A software application for online and offline registration of birth and death has been developed.
    • This application covers the entire gamut of the Civil Registration System: Registration of events, Generation of certificates and Generation of Statistical Tables and Reports.
    • 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.
    • This comprehensive database has the address, telephone numbers and other contact details of the institutions where events occur.
    • 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.
    • This application attempts to track the events at the level of institutions and ensure their registration.
  • Capacity Building of Registrars: A standard training manual has been developed for training the registration functionaries in 13 languages.
    • Regular training of registration functionaries has been introduced by providing financial assistance to the State Governments.
  • 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.
  • Advocacy and Publicity: An intensive multi-modal publicity and awareness campaigns on birth and death registration is already underway.
    • Plans are being formulated to expand this campaign in all regional languages in order to increase the coverage of the CRVS system.
  • Demand Generation: Creating a policy environment for demand generation for birth and death registration is one of the basic needs identified by a National task force set up for strengthening the CRVS.
  • National Population Register: India is in the process of setting up a National Population Register (NPR-2010). The Civil Registration System has been linked to the NPR.
     

Source: TH

 
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