New national registry of births, deaths to aid development: Shah
The Union government is planning a law that will allow the registrar general of India (RGI) to maintain a database of births and deaths at the national level, which may be used to update the electoral roll, population register and the Aadhaar database, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Monday, adding that the move will streamline development in the country.
The database may also be linked to key documents such as passports and ration cards, Shah said, and added that the next Census may be held through an electronic form for better accuracy.
“We will table a bill in the Parliament to streamline development with data related to births, deaths and Census. The Registrar General of India will also be the authority of birth and death registration,” Shah said while inaugurating the Janganana Bhawan, or Census Bhawan, in Delhi.
Shah said making RGI the authority “will ensure that the Election Commission is informed by the related software, immediately after the death of a voter, and the due process to strike off his or her name can be adopted. The opposite can be done to include a new voter in the voter list as soon as he or she becomes 18 years old”.
People familiar with plans for the new law said Shah was referring to proposed amendments in the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, which says RGI shall maintain the database of registered births and deaths at a national level which may be used, with the approval of central government, to update population register prepared under the Citizenship Act, 1955; electoral registers or electoral rolls prepared under Representation of People Act, 1951; the Aadhaar database under Aadhaar Act, 2016, ration card records under National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA); passport information under the Passport Act; and driving licence database under Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019.
Births and deaths registers are currently maintained at the state level by respective chief registrars.
Any such measure will need to be designed and implemented carefully with adequate measures of recourse for citizens in case of database errors. A unified database tied to establishing identity, voting rights and social security access needs to be foolproof, because any omission, error or abuse could have serious implications for a citizen, especially in a country where bureaucratic processes can be hard to navigate.
According to an officer, who asked not to be named, “The proposed amendments say that the birth and death registration data will be necessary for admission into educational institutions, issuance of driving licence, preparation of voter list, registration of marriage, appointment in government jobs and for passports etc.”
Subsequently, the chief registrars in the states will have to maintain a unified database of civil registration records and integrate it with the databases at the national level maintained by RGI.
The proposed law also seeks to make mandatory for medical institutions to provide a certificate to the registrar regarding the cause of death in case a person dies, said a second officer aware of its details.
Without elaborating on when the Census exercise is expected, Shah said on Monday the government will conduct “a complete and accurate census which will have multidimensional benefits by including the poorest of the poor who have got nothing after independence in the development process.”
Shah also inaugurated a web portal for registrations of birth and death and unveiled a collection of census reports, a portal where census insight reports can be purchased, and an upgraded version of the Sample Registration System (SRS) mobile app equipped with a geofencing facility.
SRS is the tool through which Census and other demographic data is officially recorded by the government.
“Census is a process that outlines a nation’s development process. So, it is very much necessary to make it fool-proof and flawless by using technologies like upgraded version of the SRS mobile app equipped with a geofencing facility,” Shah said.
The home minister further said to ensure an all-inclusive development, the nation needs planning on the basis of Census.
“I can say with complete conviction that the next census will be the basis of all-inclusive development in the nation,” he said.
The move will ensure that the Election Commission is informed by the related software immediately after the death of a voter and due process to strike off their name can be adopted. AMIT SHAH,