Are births, deaths adequately recorded?

• The RGI issued a circular on March 17, warning private and government hospitals to report births and deaths within 21 days.

• The circular stated that around 10% of births and deaths are not being registered in India, despite 90% of events being registered.

• The RGI report indicates that registration of births and deaths in 2011 was 82.4% and 66.4% respectively.

• The Registration of Birth and Death Act, 1969, amended in 2023, mandates registration of all births and deaths.

• The 2023 Act mandates all births and deaths in India to be digitally registered through the Civil Registration System.

• The data will be used to update the National Population Register (NPR), ration cards, property registration, and electoral rolls.

• Concerns have been raised about some hospitals waiting for relatives of the baby or deceased to approach them before registering events.

• The RGI also noted that some private hospitals do not report birth and death events to the concerned registrar and advise relatives to report it themselves.

• The Vital Statistics of India report, which depicts data regarding infant mortality, still-birth, and deaths at the national level, has not been published since 2020.

• The 2020 report reported a decrease in registered births from 2.48 crore in 2019 to 2.42 crore in 2020.

• The number of registered deaths increased from 76.4 lakh in 2019 to 81.2 lakh in 2020.