Essay on the Historical Background of Civil Registration in India

The system of registration of vital events was introduced in India by the British more than a hundred years ago. In the middle of the nineteenth century, administrators began to attach importance to the registration of civil events, especially of deaths.

During that time, the death rate in India was very high, perhaps because sanitary and public health conditions were appalling. In such circumstances, it was necessary to have fairly reliable estimates of death rates, if any sanitary reforms were to be introduced.

This called for a complete and an accurate registration of the number and causes of deaths. In 1863, the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India emphasised the need for knowledge of mortality conditions in smaller areas and for determining how far preventable diseases were responsible for the death rates in those areas.

He foresaw the possibility of using such knowledge as a “stepping stone” for sanitary reforms.At that time, not much thought was given to the registration of births or marriages, for it was considered that the collection of such statistics bristled with several practical difficulties.

Besides, administrators at that time did not feel the need for any detailed information on births and marriages.

Even in the form for the daily registration of vital events, there was a provision for entering the age and the social status of the deceased and the cause of death; but space was provided only for the entry of the number of births and marriages.

Only in the erstwhile Central Provinces, was the system of registration of births available as early as 1866.

The Bengal Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1873 was the first such enactment which was later adopted in Bihar and Orissa. In 1874, the Sanitary Commissioner observed that people had started making use of the entries in the register of births and deaths as evidence in courts of law.

Thus the legal need for registration of births and deaths was realised by the people. The statistical importance of such data was already recognised by the administration.

In 1880 the Indian Famine Commission again stressed the importance of the collection of vital statistics.

In 1886, the Government of India introduced the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act, which served very little purpose, for registration under this Act was purely voluntary.

In urban areas, registration of vital events was routinely carried out under the municipal bye- laws, while in rural areas this was done by rural officials under the Revenue Codes and Police Manuals.

By 1903, about 80 per cent of the census population of India (this is, British India and Princely India) was covered by the registration system. The coverage and quality of data were on good, for more emphasis was placed on obtaining information deaths and causes of deaths than on other vital events.

Several commissions, such as the Royal Commission on Agriculture, 1924, and the Royal Commission on Labour, made important suggestions for improving the scope and quality vital statistics. As a result, effective steps were taken to improve the quality and coverage of vital statistics in urban areas.

All the progress made so far in the direction of improvement of the vital statistics registration system, however, came to stances still following the Second World War, at the end of which it was completely shattered.

The Health Survey and Development Committee (popularly known as the Committee, after its Chair man, Sir Joseph Bhore), set up in 1946, deplored the state of all fairs in this field and made several suggestions for its reconstruction.

As the registration of births and deaths in India was mort concerned with the collection of data for controlling pestilences and diseases than with a study of dynamics of population change, the information needed on the growth of population was available only from census data.

It must also be noted that, up to 1921, the population of India was increasing at a slower rate and the prob­lem of its growth had not become formidable.

The realisation that the population was growing at an alarming rate came only after 1951. A great need was then felt to have correct information on the growth of population for planning for economic and social develop­ment.

It was also realised that vital statistics should be the respon­sibility of some official organisation involved in census operations rather than that of the Sanitary Commissioner or of the Director General of Health Services. In 1960, the responsibility was vested m the Registrar-General, who was also the Census Commissioner of India.

Until recently, there was no uniform legislation relating to a compulsory registration of births and deaths on an all-India level a fact which hampered improvement in the registration statistics.

The Registration of Births and Deaths Act, passed in 1969, extend to the whole of India, and make the registration of births, still births and deaths compulsory. Failure to register such an event is Punishable under the Act.

The Registrar-General of India is the central controlling authority in charge of the vital registration system. He is responsible for the consolidation and tabulation of the registered data at the national level.

He is also entrusted with the task of evaluating and promoting the registration system in the various States and Union Territories. In each State, the Chief Registrar is in charge of the civil registration system.

The responsibility for actual registration is entrusted to different departments, such as those of revenue, police, health, etc. Every year, the Registrar-General publishes a volume Vital Statistics in India, in which registered data for the States and Union Territories are presented.

These include data on the number of births and deaths, birth rates, death rates, the age distribution of the deceased, infant mortality rates, causes of death, etc.

Problems of Civil Registration in India

Though any failure to register births and deaths is punishable by law, the coverage of registration of vital events in India is far from satisfactory.

Because of under-reporting, the rates derived from registered vital events present a much distorted picture. In a survey conducted in Madras City in 1966 by the Census Department, it was found that as many as 27 per cent of the deaths were not reported.

The extent of non-reporting of vital events is found to be very high in rural areas. One of the basic reasons for this deficiency in the Indian vital registration statistics is mass illiteracy and the rural character of the population.

The importance of the registration of vital events is neither realised by the masses nor by the local registering authorities.

For most Indian people, few occasions arise when birth and death certificates are required. It is, therefore, not surprising that they do not appreciate the necessity of registering vital events.