Sign In
Learn bits
Polity & Governance
Mahesh

05/04/24 06:14 AM IST

Government to record parents’ religion to register births

In News
  • When registering the birth of a child, parents will now be required to separately record the religion of both the child’s father and mother, according to Model Rules drafted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
New Rules
  • Earlier, only the family’s religion was recorded in birth registers.
  • The proposed “Form No.1-Birth Report” will expand the column requiring a tick mark selection “for religion” of the child to now also state the “religion of father” and “religion of mother”.
  • Similar changes have been made for parents of an adopted child.
  • According to the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023, passed by the Parliament on August last year, the birth and death database will be maintained at the national level and may be used to update the National Population Register (NPR), electoral rolls, Aadhaar number, ration card, passport, driving licence, property registration, and such other databases as may be notified.
  • All reported births and deaths in the country are to be digitally registered through the Centre’s portal for the Civil Registration System (crsorgi.gov.in).
  • The digital birth certificates issued under this system will become a single document to prove the date of birth for various services, including admission to educational institutions
  • The office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) under the MHA has proposed substituting the existing forms related to the registration of births, deaths, still births, adoptions, and the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) as per the draft rules.
  • The MCCD will also include the “history of illness, if any” from now on, apart from the actual cause of death.
  • Any birth register includes two parts: legal information and statistical information. The information on the parents’ religion is to be maintained for statistical information.
  • The birth register form pertaining to legal information has been expanded to record the Aadhaar number, and the mobile and e-mail IDs of both the parents, “if available”.
  • The address box has been made more descriptive to contain the name of the State, district, sub-district, town or village, ward number (in case of town and if available), locality, house number, and PIN code.
  • The “informant” providing the information will also have to provide their Aadhaar and mobile numbers, and email address, along with the name and address details which were earlier required.
National database
  • According to the 2023 amendment, the RGI shall maintain the database of registered births and deaths at the national level and it is obligatory upon the Chief Registrars and the Registrars to share the data of registered births and deaths to such a database.
  • According to the parent Act — the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 — the RGI has been empowered to take steps to coordinate and unify the activities of Chief Registrars, who are appointed by State governments.
  • Civil Registration System (CRS) functionaries are appointed up to the panchayat level.
  • The CRS data is also used to compile the annual ‘Vital Statistics of India Based On The Civil Registration System’ report, which makes public the data regarding sex-ratio at birth, infant mortality, still-births and deaths, at the national level.
  • Such data is used by the government for socio-economic planning and to evaluate the effectiveness of various social sector programmes; it also serves as the cornerstone of the public health system.
Source- The Hindu

More Related Current Affairs View All

21 Aug

Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025

'The Lok Sabha recently passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill 2025.' The bill encourages e-sports and online social games while prohibiting harmful online mo

Read More

21 Aug

Union Home and Cooperation Minister Shri Amit Shah introduces the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025

'Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah  introduced the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirtieth Amendment) Bill, 2025, the Union Territories (Amendmen

Read More

20 Aug

How should toll collection practices be reformed?

'The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has proposed major changes to toll collection on national highways, including a recommendation to end the practice of perpetual t

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps