Birth certificate to be made mandatory for jobs, driving license, passport, voting right

Source: The post is based on the article “Birth certificate to be made mandatory for jobs, driving license, passport, voting right” published in The Hindu on 28th November 2022.

What is the News?

The Union Home Ministry proposed an amendment to the Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act,1969. The bill will be introduced in the winter session of parliament.

What is the Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act,1969?

The Registration of Birth and Death is mandatory under the provisions of the Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act,1969.

The act was enacted to promote uniformity and comparability in the registration of Births and Deaths across the country.

The events of births, stillbirths and deaths are registered at the place of occurrence of the event i.e where the event took place. 

A birth/death should be registered within 21 days. After 21 days, birth/death can be registered under the RBD Act with an order of a First-Class Magistrate issued after verifying the facts about the birth or death.

What are the proposed amendments to the RBD Act?

Firstly, it is proposed that the Chief Registrar (appointed by the States) would maintain a unified database at the State level. It would then integrate it with the data at the “national level,” maintained by the Registrar General of India (RGI). This implies that the Centre will be a parallel repository of data.

– This database at the national level may be used to update the Population Register, the Electoral Register, and the Aadhar, ration card, passport and driving license databases.

Secondly, it has been proposed to make birth certificates a mandatory document for almost every sphere of life — admission in educational institutions, inclusion in the voter list, appointment in Central and State government jobs, issue of driving licenses and passports.

Thirdly, it will be mandatory for hospitals and medical institutions to provide a copy of all death certificates, stating the cause of death, to the local registrar apart from the relative of the deceased.