Civil Registration System – Economics and Statistics

Table of Contents

Civil Registration System (CRS), also known as birth and death registration system, is the recording of important like Birth, Death & Still Birth under the statutory provisions on continuous and permanent basis. CRS comes under the Concurrent list of the Constitution of India at Sl. No. 30.

Civil registration (CR) is the recording of important events in a person’s life (e.g., birth, death) and is a fundamental function of the national government. Birth registration set ups a person’s legal identity at birth. Having a legal identity, name, nationality, proof of age, and the related are vital human rights and facilitates individuals to implement their rights (e.g., to vote) and enjoy different government, social, and private services. Vital statistics (VS) are statistics on these important events and of the persons concerned. The accessibility of valid and timely VS depends on the level of development of CR. Having an effective CRVS system is essential for planning and observing programs across many sectors. Yet, over 110 low- and middle-income countries have poor CRVS systems. This course offers practical tools and approaches to attaining 21st century state-of-the-art CRVS systems that are connected to identity management systems and modified to local circumstances. This self-paced format is provided for busy professionals who are able to take the course at their own speed and finish at any time. Learners will get a Basic Level Certificate after successfully finishing Core Modules 1-3 and can eventually enroll in the Facilitated format to get an Advanced Level Certificate.

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What are civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems?

In most countries, a civil registration system is used to record statistics on vital events, such as births, deaths, marriages, divorces and fetal deaths. This government administrative system generates a permanent record of each event. A well-functioning CRVS system objects to:

- protect individuals with recognition of their legal identity and assure rights of access to public services, social protection and human rights;
- create statistics on population dynamics and health indicators on a regular basis for the country as a whole and at a local level for its administrative subdivisions;
- create required statistical data that decision-makers depend on for policy formulation, planning and execution, and observing, and
- allows the understanding of the prevalence, distribution and causes of mortality, as well as identify health inequalities and priorities.

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Civil registration is defined by the UN as: “the continuous, permanent, compulsory, and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events (live births, deaths, fetal deaths, marriages, and divorces) and other civil status events pertaining to the population as provided by decree, law or regulation, in accordance with the legal requirements in each country.”

Development and enhancing of CRVS systems are important for strengthening the quality of a country’s vital statistics, and for using this information to help policies and programmes. This wider concept has been apprehended in the UN definition of a vital statistics system as: the total process of: 1) accumulating information by civil registration or computation on the frequency or occurrence of specified and defined vital events, as well as relevant characteristics of the events themselves and the person or persons related; and 2) assembling, processing, evaluating, assessing, presenting and disseminating these information in statistical form.

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Amendment In Civil Registration System

According to the 2020-21 annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Central government is planning to modernize the Civil Registration System (CRS) to empower the registration of birth and death in real-time with minimum human interface that will be independent of location.

The RGI (Registrar General of India) is authorized under Section 3(3) of the Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969 to take steps to coordinate and combine the activities of Chief Registrars of Births and Deaths of all States.
Civil Registration System (CRS) in India is the combined process of continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the important events (births, deaths, stillbirths) and characteristics thereof.
The data created through a complete and timely CRS is necessary for socio-economic planning.

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Proposed Amendments:

Updating for New Changes due to Birth and Death:
It is required to update the NPR (National Population Register) again, first collated in 2010 and updated in 2015 with Aadhaar, mobile and ration card numbers “to incorporate the changes due to birth, death and migration.

The CRS system is facing problems in terms of timelines, efficiency and uniformity, leading to late and under-coverage of birth and death.

To address the challenges faced by the system in offering quick service delivery to the public, the Government of India has determined to launch transformational changes in the Civil Registration System of the country through an IT [information technology] empowered backbone leading to registration of birth and death on a real-time basis with less human interface.
The changes would be in terms of automating the process delivery points so that the service delivery was time-bound, same and free from discretion.
The changes would be feasible, scalable and independent of the location.

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Civil Registration System In India

History: The history of the Civil Registration System (CRS) in India goes back to the middle of the 19th century.
- In 1886 a Central Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act was declared to offer for voluntary registration throughout British India.
Post-independence: The Registration of Births and Death Act (RBD Act) was launched in 1969 to develop uniformity and comparability in the registration of Births and Deaths across the country and collection of vital statistics based thereon.
- With the launch of the Act, registration of births, deaths and still births has become compulsory in India.

Registration: The Registrar General, India (RGI) at the Central Government level coordinates and merges the activities of registration throughout the country.
- However, execution of the statute is endowed with the State Governments.
- The registration of births and deaths in the country is done by the officials appointed by the State Governments.
Uniform birth and death reporting: The Act directs the use of uniform birth and death reporting forms and certificates throughout the country.

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Initiatives

Uniform Software Application for Registration of Births and Deaths: A software application for online and offline registration of birth and death has been designed.
- This application covers the whole gamut of the Civil Registration System: Registration of events, Generation of certificates and Generation of Statistical Tables and Reports.
- The application that is currently available in English is being customized in 13 Indian languages.
Database of Institutions: A nationwide database of medical Institutions has been made.
- This comprehensive database has the address, telephone numbers and other contact details of the institutions where events happens.
- The plan is to electronically observe the registration of events happening in these institutions through an ICT empowered platform.
  - Application to Monitor Institutional Events: An SMS based application called “Event Monitoring System for Registration” has been designed and is presently under pilot testing. This application aims to follow the events at the level of institutions and assure their registration.
  - Capacity Building of Registrars: A standard training manual has been designed for training the registration functionaries in 13 languages. Regular training of registration functionaries has been initiated by offering financial assistance to the State Governments.
Data digitization: Project to keep old records in simple way to recover digital form has been begun. This will assist in storage of registers in electronic format and lets easy entrance to the records.

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Advocacy and Publicity: A comprehensive multi-modal publicity and awareness campaigns on birth and death registration is already in progress. Plans are being organized to broaden this campaign in all regional languages in order to expand the coverage of the CRVS system.

Demand Generation: Generating a policy environment for demand generation for birth and death registration is one of the basic needs identified by a National task force established for enhancing the CRVS.
National Population Register: India is in the process of establishing a National Population Register (NPR-2010). The Civil Registration System has been connected to the NPR.