REGISTRATION OF BIRTH
AND DEATH AMENDMENT ACT, 2023 - GOVERNANCE
News: Centre to separately record
parents’ religion during registration of childbirth
What's in the 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.
●
These Rules will have to be adopted and notified by State governments before they are implemented.
Key takeaways:
●
Current practice is to record the religion of a
child's family only; the database may be used to update NPR, voter rolls,
Aadhaar, ration cards, passports and driving licence.
●
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.
Registration of Birth
and Death Amendment Act, 2023:
1. Facilitate Digital
Certificate:
●
The Amendment provides for obtaining a birth or
death certificate (electronically or otherwise) instead of extracts.
2. Maintaining Database:
●
Registrar General will maintain a national database of registered
births and deaths.
●
The Chief
Registrars (appointed by states) and Registrars (appointed by states for
local area jurisdiction) will be obligated to share data of registered births
and deaths to the national database.
●
The Chief Registrar shall maintain a similar
database at the state level.
3. Specified Persons:
●
The original Act requires certain persons to report
births and deaths to the Registrar. For example, the medical officer in charge
of a hospital where a baby is born must report the birth.
●
The Amendment act adds that, in cases of births,
the specified persons shall also provide
the Aadhaar number of the parents and the informant.
●
This provision also applies to
○
Jailor in case of births in a jail.
○
Manager of a hotel or lodge in case of births in
such a place.
●
Further, it expands the list of specified persons
to include
○
Adoptive parents for non-institutional adoption.
○
Biological parent for births through surrogacy.
○
Parent in case of birth of a child to a single
parent or unwed mother.
4. Integrated Database:
●
The Amendment act states that the national database may be made available
to other authorities preparing or maintaining other databases.
●
Such databases includes
○
Population register
○
Electoral rolls
○
Ration card
○
Any other national databases as notified.
●
The use of the national database must be approved
by the central government.
●
Similarly, the state database may be made available
to authorities dealing with other state databases, subject to state government
approval.
5. Birth Certificate:
●
The Amendment act requires the use of birth and
death certificates to prove the date and
place of birth for persons born on or after this Bill comes into effect.
●
The information will be used for purposes
including:
○
Admission to an educational institution.
○
Preparation of voter lists.
○
Appointment to a government post.
○
Any other purpose determined by the central
government.
6. Appeal against
Registrars:
●
Any person aggrieved by any action or order of the
Registrar or District Registrar may appeal to the District Registrar or Chief Registrar, respectively.
●
Such an appeal must be made within 30 days from receipt
of such action or order.
● The District Registrar or Chief Registrar must give their decision within 90 days from the date of appeal.