Draft amendment to birth, death registration act was in public domain: Government

"Following consultations with the concerned union Ministries/Departments and all the state governments/Union Territories, a draft amendment to the Registration of Birth & Death Act, 1969 was placed in the public domain from October 18, 2021 to December 2, 2021 for comments," Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

 The government had invited suggestions from the general public on proposed amendments to the Act, which was around 50 years old and had not been amended so far.

 "Various sections of the Act are proposed to be amended to make it people-friendly and to accommodate changes and new developments in the society during the last five decades," the government's notice of November 16 read.

 BJP member Rakesh Singh, in his question, had asked the government to clarify whether there is any proposal to amend the Registration of Births and Deaths Act.

 Rai said the registration of birth and death is mandatory under the Act and the Chief Registrar is mandated to publish a statistical report on the registered births and deaths during the year.

 "The draft amendment includes a provision for maintaining a unified database of civil registration records at state level and for integration with the database at the national level," he said.

 However, he said there was no proposal to include the data of earlier census to make the proposal or the exercise more effective.