Unified Database of Birth and Death

Q What is the context  ?

A The Centre has proposed amendments to a 1969 law that will enable it to “maintain the database of registered birth and deaths at the national level”.

Q What are provisions of Registration of Births and Deaths Act (RBD), 1969 ?

A 

• The registration of births, deaths and stillbirths are compulsory under the provisions of RBD Act in all parts of the Country.
• The normal period of 21 days (from the date of occurrence) has been prescribed for reporting the birth, death and stillbirth events.

Q Why need amendment?

A 

• The database may be used to update the Population Register and the electoral register, and Aadhaar, ration card, passport and driving licence databases after the amendment.
• Presently, the registration of births and deaths is done by the local registrar appointed by States.

Q What are the proposed amendments?

A    Unified Database of Birth and Death

• It is proposed that the Chief Registrar (appointed by the States) would maintain a unified database at the State level.
• It would then integrate it with the data at the “national level,” maintained by the Registrar General of India (RGI).
• The amendments will imply that the Centre will be a parallel repository of data.

Q What will be the Significance of the database ?

A It would help update:

1. Population Register prepared under the Citizenship Act, 1955;
2. Electoral registers or electoral rolls prepared under the Representation of the People Act, 1951
3. Aadhaar database prepared under the Aadhaar Act, 2016;
4. Ration card database prepared under the National Food Security Act, 2013;
5. Passport database prepared under the Passport Act; and
6. Driving licence database under the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, and
7. Other databases at the national level are subject to provisons of Section 17 (1) of the RBD Act, 1969