The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2023
Recently, Lok Sabha has approved the Registration of Births (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which marks a significant change towards ‘Digital Birth Certificate’. The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2023 seeks to amend the Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969.
It may be noted that the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1969 provides for regulation and registration of births and deaths. Registration of births and deaths comes under the Concurrent List, which gives both Parliament and state legislatures the power to make laws on the subject.
The amendments in the Bill have the following objectives:
To keep pace with social change and technological progress during the period of its operation, and to make it more citizen friendly.
Highlights of this Bill:
- Its objective is to prepare a national and state level database of registration of births and deaths. This will help in updating other databases. As a result, efficient and transparent delivery of public services and social benefits will be possible.
- A provision for the appointment of the Registrar General of India (RGI) has also been made in this bill. RGI may issue general instructions for registration of births and deaths.
- Under this, electronic certificates will now be issued for birth or death.
- Some individuals are required to provide birth and death information to the RGI. For this, Aadhaar details of parents and informants are necessary.
- The person giving information can be a medical officer in charge of a hospital, a hotel manager, a jailer etc.
- It has been made mandatory for all medical institutions to provide a certificate of cause of death to the Registrar and a copy of the same to the next of kin.
- Any person disagreeing with any action or order taken by the Registrar or the District Registrar may appeal to the District Registrar or the Chief Registrar respectively.
Source – The Hindu
