All reported births, deaths to be digitally registered from October 1

Digital birth certificates will serve as a single document that can be used for admission to educational institutions, applications for driving licences, government jobs, passports, or Aadhaar

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All reported births and deaths in India will be registered digitally on the Centre's portal from October 1.

In an official notification, the Ministry of Home Affairs stated that the provisions of the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023 will come into force from October 1, 2023.

It will pave the way for digital birth certificates, a single document that can be used for admission to educational institutions, applications for driving licences, government jobs, passports, or Aadhaar, voter enrollment, and marriage registration.

"In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of Section 1 of the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023 (20 of 2023), the Central government hereby appoints October 1, 2023 as the date on which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force," said a notification by Registrar-General and Census Commissioner, Mritunjay Kumar Narayan.

Also Read: How To Get Birth Certificate

The Bill, which sought an amendment to the 1969 Act, was piloted by Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai. The law was passed in both Houses of the Parliament during the monsoon session and received President Droupadi Murmu's assent on August 11.

The law allows the Registrar General of India to establish a national and state-level database of birth and death registrations. As per the amended law, chief registrars (appointed by states) and registrars (appointed by states for local area jurisdiction) will be obligated to share data on registered births and deaths with the national database.
 

The Act also empowers the citizens of the country aggrieved by any action or order of the registrar or district registrar to appeal to the district registrar or chief registrar, respectively. Such an appeal must be made within 30 days from receipt of such action. Following this, the district registrar or the chief registrar must give their decision within 90 days from the date of appeal.

National Population Register

The centralised database will update the National Population Register (NPR), ration cards, property registration and electoral rolls. The NPR has a database of 1,190 million residents. The NPR is the first step to creating the National Register of Citizens (NRC), as per the Citizenship Act.

It will be made compulsory for the states to register births and deaths on the Centre's Civil Registration System (CRS) portal and share data with the RGI. The Act authorises the government to "collect Aadhaar numbers of parents and informants, if available, in case of birth registration".

Currently, either parent voluntarily provides the Aadhaar number for a newborn's birth certificate generated through the CRS.