The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2023

July 27, 2023

Analysis of The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2023

A Bill to amend the Registration of Births and Death Act which regulates the registration of births and deaths and for matters connected therewith.

Background

The Registration of Births and Deaths Act, of 1969 was enacted to regulate the registration of births and deaths. Under the RBD Act, it is the responsibility of the states to set up facilities for registering births and deaths and maintain records of the same. A Chief Registrar shall be appointed in every state as the executive authority for the implementation of the Act and the Registrar General of India appointed under this Act shall be responsible for coordinating and monitoring the implementation of the RBD Act[1].

Since the inception of the bill in 1969, it has not been amended. The Government believes that in order to keep pace with the rapid digitalization and to make it more citizen friendly , it is necessary to modify the Act. The proposed amendments to the bill have been formulated following discussions with State Governments, the public, and other concerned parties.

The proposed amendments of 2023 in the bill seek to propose digital registration of births and deaths, making birth certificates a mandatory proof of date and place of birth and making it mandatory for medical institutions giving specialized treatment to provide death certificates with a history of illness of the deceased to the local registrar.

Additionally, the Bill is also proposing to build a national and state-level database of births and deaths and utilize it to update every other government database like the National Population Register to voter polls, databases of passports, ration cards, driving licenses and Aadhar. This amendment will be playing an essential role in updating the citizen’s register, electoral rolls, and individuals who will avail of beneficiary schemes[2].

Key Clauses of the Bill3

S.No. Subject Proposed Amendment
1. New Definitions New definitions have been added under the Bill● Aadhar number

●      Adoption

●      Database
2. Registrations to be digitized This has been proposed to be amended to the Registrar General of India.

Registration of births and deaths have to be recorded electronically on the database maintained at the National Level.
3. Duties of Registrar General have been widened Duties of the Registrar General have been expanded to monitor the database at the

National level of births and deaths. Chief Registrar and the Registrars to share the data of registered births and deaths to such databases.
4. Linkages with other National databases With the prior approval of the Central

Government, the database of births and deaths on request, be made available to the authorities who are maintaining and preparing databases forpopulation register, electoral rolls, ration card, Aadhar number, driving license, passport, property registration and any other national database.
5. Duties of the Chief Registrar have been amended The Chief Registrar shall take steps to register births or deaths and maintain a unified database of registered births and deaths at the State level by using the portal as approved by the Registrar General of India. This database may also be shared with the authorities maintaining and preparing databases at the State Level.

3

 

S.No. Subject Proposed Amendment
6. Appointment of special sub-registrars The Chief Registrar can also appoint special sub-registrars in the event of any disaster or epidemic. This new provision of appointment of sub-registrars in emergency situations has been added in view of the critical situation that the country had to face during the recent pandemic and the frequency of natural disasters that have increased over the years. The important role of sub-registrars in maintaining the accountability of births and deaths in a region, especially in the event of a disaster or epidemic, cannot be denied. Therefore, this added provision can now help in emergency appointments to this critical position to assist in time bound administrative and governance decision making.
7. Persons required to register births and deaths The Bill requires registration to be either orally or in writing with signature. It categorizes the persons who can do registration in certain particular cases-

●      In respect of non-institutional adoption, the adoptive parents.

●      In respect of birth of a child to a single parent or unwed mother from her womb, the parent.

●      In respect of birth of a child through surrogacy, the biological parent.

●      In respect of a child who is taken on adoption from the Specialised Adoption Agency, the person in-charge of the Specialised Adoption Agency.

●      In respect of an orphan or abandoned child or surrendered child in any child care institution, the person in-charge or caretaker of the child care institution.

●      In respect of birth of a child through surrogacy in a surrogacy clinic, the person

 

S.No. Subject Proposed Amendment
in-charge of the surrogacy clinic.

●      Where death occurs in any medical

institution providing specialised treatment or general treatment, institution to provide a certificate of the cause of death, including the history of illness, if any, signed by the medical practitioner who attended that person.

●      In the event of death of any person occurring in any place other than medical institution, medical practitioner, who was attending the patient shall issue a certificate of the cause of death, including the history of illness, if any.
8. Timeline provided for issuance of certificate Registrar shall, as soon as the registration of a birth or death has been completed, within 7 days provide the certificate of birth or death to the person who had registered the same.
9. Delay in registration Any birth or death of which delayed information is given to the Registrar after thirty days but within one year of its occurrence, shall be registered only with the written permission of the District Registrar or such other authority, on payment of such fee and on production of self-attested document.

In cases where one year has expired since the birth or death, the same shall be registered only on an order made by a District Magistrate or Sub-Divisional Magistrate or by an Executive Magistrate authorised by the District Magistrate, having jurisdiction and after verifying the correctness of the birth or death and on payment of such fee.
10. Enhances Penalties Fines have been provided for anyone who contravenes the provision of this Bill.
S.No. Subject Proposed Amendment
11. Grievance Redressal Any person aggrieved by the action of Registrar, may prefer an appeal to the District Registrar and by the action of District Registrar, may prefer an appeal to the Chief Registrar. The complaint can be filed within 30 days and the complaint has to be decided within 90 days.

Pros of the Bill for consideration[3]:

  1. Ease in Registration: The Bill endeavors to create a mechanism for digital registration and electronic delivery of certificates of births and deaths for the benefit of the public at large. This would ease the process of registration of births and deaths as well as digitization would mean having ready records of the general population of the country. This would help the government in better planning of the schemes and implementation of the same. It would also be able to cater to the needs of the people at the national level as well as the regional level. A centralized database system would ensure the accuracy of data and bridge the gap between having data of beneficiaries and planning of the development schemes.
  2. Single Database: Create a National and State level database of registered births and deaths which can be linked with other such databases and enable in developing correct and accurate data for an effective public delivery system. The linking of this database with other databases creates a mechanism through which beneficiaries can be easily identified.
  3. Birth Certificate as identity proof: Provide for use of the Birth Certificate as a single document to prove the date and place of birth of a person born on or after the date of commencement of the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023 for all purposes. This single window system of collection of data and a single authenticated document would reduce the burden of multiple documents for authentication of date and place of birth under the other systems- like school admissions, driving license, appointment to a government job etc.
  4. Simplified processes: Facilitate registration process of adopted, orphan, abandoned, surrendered, surrogate child and child to a single parent or unwed mother. This was particularly an essential amendment to bring due to the unrecorded registrations under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act and in cases where children are being born to unwed parents. This Bill mandates and provides for every scenario where the person can get the registration of birth done, particularly in cases of children who are in childcare institutions.

Areas which might Require further deliberations[4]:

  1. Large-scale data collection drive: One of the main concerns that have been raised by experts is regarding the digitization of births and deaths. It is unclear as to how the collection of data will take place, what kind of digital infrastructure will be provided at the district levels to enable them to comply with the provisions, and whether a large-scale data collection drive will take place to digitize the data.
  2. Capacity building of the States: The provisions of this Bill impose many new financial implications on the States along with a possible requirement of more manpower who are well versed in using digital tools. The government, while implementing this bill will have to take into account the additional burden created on States and help the States in gradual implementation of the provisions along with providing a financial budget for the same.
  3. Mass awareness generation about the Bill: Since the implementation of the provisions impacts the general public at the village, block, and district level, the government will have to take adequate steps to create mass awareness about the provisions of this Bill. The awareness campaign would have to be designed to make the population aware of digital literacy, digitization of personal data, cases where

 

www.swaniti.in

registration is required, and cases where the certificates can be used. For this, the government would have to consider engaging with civil society organizations and other stakeholders working at the grassroots level.

Stringent security measures to protect data: Another one of the growing concerns about the digitization of data and linking of databases with each other is the probable data leaks while sharing of information amongst authorities. The Government would have to come out with strict security measures to protect the data

[1] The Registration of Birth and Deaths Bill, 1969, accessed

at:https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/11674/1/the_registration_of_births_and_deaths_act%2C_1969.p df

[2] The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment ) Bill, 2023

[3] ibid

[4] Indian Express (Nov,2022), Govt may bring Bill to allow NPR updation via birth and death database, accessed

at:https://indianexpress.com/article/india/parliament-winter-session-govt-may-bring-bill-to-allow-npr-updation-via-birth-anddeath-database-8291821/