Registrar General of India cautions hospitals over delay in reporting events of birth, death

With Census being delayed, the statistics obtained through civil registration records enable estimation of population. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Registrar General of India’s (RGI) office has cautioned private and government hospitals that they must report incidents of birth and death within 21 days, after it was found that many medical institutions were flouting the law, delaying universal registration. Instead of immediately reporting births and deaths, many hospitals are waiting for relatives to request it or even directing relatives to report it themselves, the RGI said.

In a March 17, 2025 circular, the RGI’s office said that 90% of birth or death events are getting registered in India and significant progress has been made towards the goal of universal registration. However, “the target of 100% registration of births and deaths is yet to be achieved.”

“One of the primary reasons for non-realisation of the goal of universal registration is non-reporting of birth and death events by some hospitals, be it private or government, as per the provisions of RBD,” the circular said.

‘Negligence attracts fine’

The RGI, which comes under the Union Home Ministry’s authority, said in a communication to all States that, as per Section 23(2) of the Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act, “negligence by the registrar in registering any birth or death” is punishable with a fine. The RBD Act, 1969, which was amended in 2023, mandates the registration of all births and deaths on the Centre’s portal from October 1, 2023.

Under the Civil Registration System (CRS), the Centre’s online portal, government hospitals have been entrusted with the responsibility of functioning as registrars.

“It has been observed that some of them do not register the events as required under the Act, but wait for the relative of the child or the deceased to approach them and thereafter, they begin the process of registration. Instances have also been reported that some private hospitals don’t report birth and death events to the concerned registrar… It has also been reported that some of the private hospitals deny the reporting of events and advise the relatives to report it himself/herself directly to the concerned registrar,” the circular said.

The centralised database will be used to update the National Population Register (NPR), ration cards, property registration, and electoral rolls.

Certificates in seven days

The RGI also asked the registrars to issue birth and death certificates to citizens within seven days. From October 1, 2023, the digital birth certificate is the single document to prove the date of birth for various services such admission to educational institutions government jobs, marriage registration, among others.

“Another major constraint is that some of the registrars do not take adequate measures for making registration process citizen friendly. In this context, it has been observed that following the reporting of the events by general public/private hospitals, some registrars do not enter the events in the online portal and register them in time and keep them pending for several days, causing inconvenience to the general public,” the circular said.

No vital stats since 2020

The RGI has not released the ‘Vital Statistics of India Based on the Civil Registration System’ and ‘The Report on Medical Certification of Cause of Death’ since 2020. The last released reports pertained to the year 2019.

With the last decadal Census exercise conducted in 2011 and the next Census pending since 2021, the vital statistics obtained through civil registration records at different administrative levels enable the estimation of the size, structure, and geographical distribution of the population, without accounting for migration.