Bill mandates national birth-death database, hides cause of death on certificates

It also updates rules for who must report births and deaths, how certificates are issued, and the penalties for non-compliance.

Who it concerns: The law affects the Registrar General of India, Chief Registrars, Registrars, and Sub-Registrars; medical institutions and practitioners; parents, adoptive parents, and informants of births and deaths; and government authorities managing databases for Aadhaar, electoral rolls, passports, and other services.

What the bill does

• Mandates the Registrar General of India to maintain a national database of registered births and deaths, with obligatory data sharing by Chief Registrars and Registrars.
• Requires Chief Registrars to maintain a unified state-level database using an approved portal.
• Allows the national and state databases to be shared with authorities for Aadhaar, electoral rolls, ration cards, passports, driving licenses, and property registration, subject to government approval.
• Expands the list of persons required to provide information on births to include adoptive parents, single parents, biological parents in surrogacy cases, and staff of adoption agencies or child care institutions.
• Requires medical institutions and practitioners to provide free certificates of cause of death.
• Mandates that birth and death certificates be issued free of charge within seven days of registration, electronically or otherwise.
• Establishes that birth/death certificates serve as proof of date and place of birth for education, government jobs, passports, and Aadhaar, overriding other laws.
• Increases the penalty for failure to register or providing false information from fifty rupees to two hundred and fifty rupees.
• Allows for the appointment of Special Sub-Registrars during disasters or epidemics.

Also in the document

• The Bill is an amendment to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969.
• It introduces specific provisions for registering births resulting from surrogacy and adoption.
• It explicitly states that death certificates issued to persons shall not disclose the cause of death.
• It creates a new sub-section (1A) in section 23 specifying penalties for specific informants (such as medical staff or agency in-charges) who fail to provide information or provide false information.