Birth registration in India

Birth registration in India is necessary as it provides with an essential document known as a birth certificate. It is essential to get a birth registered in India to enjoy the benefits of national identity. Without a birth certificate, there are high chances of denial of a nationality and a personal identity in India. The birth certificate is an essential piece of documentation required throughout the lifespan for various things. The government is benefitted by maintaining an official record/statistics of birth rate and death rate in a populated country like India easily, by tracking the registrations of birth and death certificates.

It also provides a graphical database to analyse various aspects of population management.

Benefits of registration:

• A birth certificate is now a compulsory document asked during admissions.
• It is required to maintain the National Population Register also called as NPR.
• It is a valid age proof required during job employment, marriage, insurance purposes.
• A birth certificate is also used as proof of paternity.
• While registering a name in the electoral roll, a birth certificate is asked.

Stipulated time period:

A time period of 21 days has been stipulated to register New birth certificate in India. However, a new birth certificate can also be registered later By following certain conditions.

Status of birth registration in India:

The data recorded by the civil registration system in 2013 enlightened following data in India:

• The total number of births that were registered in India were 95.6% during the year 2013. The registration was 95.5% in rural areas. On the other hands, urban areas have 98% registration rate respectively.
• The data has gradually increased compared to 2012 by 1% in 2013.
• It is noticed that the birth registration ratio of boys in India was 53% in 2013 whereas for women it was 47%.

A New birth registration is recorded by states and Union Territories. The process has been decentralised. This leads to about 98% of registration centres to be located in rural areas whereas 2% in the urban setting.

Some facts:

• In the recent data obtained in 2015- 2016 from National Family Health Survey, 62.3% birth registrations were noted. This data was derived as five out of three children were registered. This is improved by 29.3% from the last survey that was conducted in 2005- 2006.
• It has been noticed for a long time now, that children from weaker sections of society are usually unregistered in the National Population Register.
• As the data has improved in recent years, it also notifies that before 2005 not many birth registrations were recorded.
• The Schedule caste, scheduled tribes, uneducated people and the population of India which is living in poverty, and can’t afford education, are mostly the ones, who are unregistered in National Population Register with no birth certificate.
• In the latest dispute over the NRC, it was officially stated in a bureau release that birth certificate of an individual or their parents is a necessity to identify as a national citizen. Passport and aadhar card are not enough proof.
• The children whose birth records are officially never recorded are noted under the Invisible population, stated by UNICEF, as have no record of their life and death in government databases.