Believe it or not! Births and deaths are not being registered in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh as the government has made no efforts to extend training for online registration or made any budgetary allocation in this regard, resulting in very low registration of births and deaths in the state.
What is more alarming is that seven registrars did not register any birth in their districts between 2012 and 2017 while 14 did not register any death during this period in their respective zones.
As per stats available with the government, only 62.5 per cent births were registered in the state as compared to the national average of 86 per cent. The level of registration in case of deaths is just 35.5 per cent as against the national average of 78.1 per cent.
Wherever the deaths and births were registered, the chief registrar of Uttar Pradesh did not link them with important schemes and programmes of the government, thereby meaning that the schemes made by the government were merely based on estimates.
The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, in a letter to the UP government, stated that the state had made no arrangements to impart training in online registration in rural areas. “The chief registrar of UP prepared and submitted plans only for urban areas and demanded financial assistance for cities. No efforts were made to start digital registration of births and deaths in rural areas and it reflectes in the total registration figure of Uttar Pradesh”, the letter said.
Uttar Pradesh, home to 220 million people, is one of the most backward states of India where the quality of education and basic health facilities are poor while over 70 per cent of the population lives in villages.
That the civil registration is not on the priority list of the government is evident from the fact that there is no provision in the state budget for activities relating to the registration of births and deaths under the Registration of Birth and Death Act. Despite suggestions from the Registrar General of India, the chief registrar of UP neither prepared the plan for creation and advocacy of pubilicity and digitalisation of records, nor demanded funds from RGI.
As a result, the state government did not get funds to strengthen the registration of births and deaths.
Government law says that in state-run hospitals, health centres, private nursing homes and primary health centres (PHCs), the medical officers in-charge or others authorised by them are supposed to report births and deaths to the registrars concerned. In case of any irregularity, the monitoring officials, including district magistrates and chief medical officers, are supposed take action against the erring officials.
The primary purpose of registration of births and deaths is to create a legal document that is used to establish and protect rights of individuals. The secondary purpose is to create a data source for compilation of vital statistics.
“This database is also a source of statistics for understanding population dynamics for comprehensive planning for programmes and schemes for welfare of people,” the letter said.