Figure 4: Copyright Infringement Not Intended

Context:

• The Centre has proposed amendments to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act (RBD), 1969.

Existing Mechanism:

• Currently, the registration of births and deaths is done by the local registrar appointed by States.
• The State Government may appoint a Registrar for each local area comprising the area within the jurisdiction of a municipality, panchayat or other local authority or any other area or a combination of any two or more of them.

Proposed Changes:

• It is proposed that the Chief Registrar (appointed by the States) would maintain a unified database at the State level and 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.

About Registration of Births and Deaths Act(RBD),1969

• the Registration of Births and Death Act (RBD Act) was enacted in 1969 to promote uniformity and comparability in the registration of Births and Deaths across the country and compilation of vital statistics based thereon.
• With the enactment of the Act, registration of births, deaths and still births has become mandatory in India.
• The Registrar General, India (RGI) at the Central Government level coordinates and unifies the activities of registration throughout the country. However, implementation of the statute is vested with the State Governments.
• The registration of births and deaths in the country is done by the functionaries appointed by the State Governments. Directorate of Census Operations are the sub-ordinate offices of Office of the Registrar General, India and these offices are responsible of monitoring of working of the Act in their concerned State/UT.
• The Act mandates the use of uniform birth and death reporting forms and certificates throughout the country.

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