INDIAN CENSUS CENTENARY 1872-1972 MONOGRAPH SERIES CENSUS CENTENARY MONOGRAPH NO.4 civil registration system in india -a perspective VITAL STATISTICS DIVISION OFFICE OF THE REGISTRAR GENERAL, INDIA, MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS, NEW DELHI. CONTENTS PART I NATIONAL REVIEW PAGES FOREWORD IX Chapter 1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 1-3 Chapter 2 EVOLUTION OF REGISTRATION SYSTEM IN INDIA 4-12 Sanitary Commissioner's report for 1867-1873 Recommendations of Indian-Famine Commis­ sion, 1880. Central Act-Births, Deaths and Marriages Re­ gistration, 1886 The report of Royal Commission on Agriculture 1924 and Royal Commission on Labour, 1938. Recommendations of the Central Advisory Board of Health, Madras, 1939 The Health Survey and Development Committee (Bhore Committee), 1946. Vital Statistics Committee, 1948 The Registrar General's Report, 1951 Chapter 3 SYSTEM OF REGISTRATION PREVALENT 13-16 Organisation. Flow of Returns. Period of Reporting. Delayed Registration. Time Schedule. Inspection Arrangements. Cost of Registration. Incentives and Penalities. Forms of Registration Records Chapter 4 SOME OF mE DEFICIENCES IN mE REGISTRATION 17-21 SYSTEM Deficiencies in the system as pointed out by various committees. Organisation. (i) (ii) PAGES Coverage-under-registration-survey conducted bv the Office of the Registrar General, India Timeliness. Under-reporting. Completness. Chapter 5 DEVELOPMENTS SINCE 1960 22-26 Confelence on improvement of Vital Statistics, 1961. Conference on State problems on implementing schemes for the improvement of registration and Vital Statistics, 1965. Conference on improvement of Registration and Compilation of Vital Statistics, 1967. Chapter 6 PLAN SCHEMES FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF REGIS- TRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS 27-38 Short-term Schemes :-Sample Registration, Model Registration. Long-term Schemes :-Strengthening of Vital Statistics Organisation at State Headqua~ers. Strengthening of District Registration Offices. Strengthening of Statistical Units in Munici­ palities. Setting up of Mechanical Tabulation Units at the State Headquarters . Registration Promotion, Methods Research and Training Chapter 7 CENTRAL LEGISLATION 39-46 . Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969- Salient features of the Act. Preparatory Steps for the enforcement of the Act. Conference of Chief Registrars, 1970. Detailed position of enforcement of the Act in State/Union Territories. ApP9intment of Registrar General, India and other principal functionaries. Th~ appointment of Chief Registrar in each State/Union Territory. Model Rules. (iii) PAGES Chapter 8 REGISTRATION PROMOTION 47-50 Inter-Departmental Committee on Vital Statis- tics Regional Liaison Offices Training Publicity BIBLIOGRAPHY PARTII : STATEWISE REVIEW OF THE VITAL STATISTICS SYSTEM PRIOR TO THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS ACT, 1969 STATES PAGES 1. Andhra Pradesh SS 2. Assam S7 3. Bihar S9 4. Gujarat 61 S. Haryana 63 6. Himachal Pradesh 65 7. Jammu & Kashmir 67 8. Kerala 69 9. Madhya Pradesh 71 10. Maharashtra 73 11. Mysore 76 12. Orissa 79 13. Punjab 81 14. Rajasthan. 83 15. Tamil Nadu 8S 16. Uttar Pradesh 87 17. West Bengal 89 UNION TERRITORms \ 18. A & N Islands 92 19. Chandigarh 93 20. Dadra & Nagar Haveli 94 21. Delhi 95 22. Goa, Daman & Diu 97 23. L. M. A. Islands 98 24. Pondicherry (v) ANNEXURES PAGES I Chart depicting Registration System and Flow of Returns in Rural areas. 103 II Acts and Regulations under which registration of Births & Deaths was done in the States prior to 1969 Act 106 III Report of the Second Meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Health (1939). 112 IV Recommendations of Health Survey and Development Committee (Bhore Committee)-1945 113 V Report of Vital Statistics Committee-August 1948 115 VI Scheme for improvement of population Data-1951 116 VII Recommendation of Central· Expert Committee of the Indian Council of Medical Research on Small-pox and Cholera held jointly with the representatives of the States Expert Committees on Small-pox and Cholera in New Delhi-1959 121 VIII Manickavelu Committee Report-1960 122 IX Recommendations on the improvement of Vital Sta- tistics-1961 123 X Recommendations of the Conference on State Problems in Improving Schemes for the improvement of Registra- tion and Vital Statistics-1965 153 XI Recommendations of the Conference on Improvement of Registration and Compilation on Vital Statistics, Hyderabad-1967 . 157 XII Conference on Sample Registration:- (i) Recommendations of the first Conference at Ahmeda- bad-1964 176 (ii) Recommendations of the second Conference at Trivandrum-1965 179 (iii) Recommendations of the third Conference at Calcutta-1967 . 182 (iv) Recommendations of the fourth Conference at Puri~ 1968 186 (v) Recommendations of the fifth Conference at Bhopal- 1969 188 (vi) Recommendations of the sixth Conference at Poona- 1970 189 XIII Recommendations of the Conference of Model Registra- tion New Delhi-1967 192 (vii) 2-11101/ND/72 (viii) PAGES XIV Model Rules under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 (18 of 1969) for adoption by the State Govern- ments 194 XV Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1969 (No. 18 of 1969) 199 XVI Recommendation of the Conference of Chief Registrars held at New Delhi-1970 210 XVII Training Programme for various levels of workers in Vital Statistics in the States ~12 FOREWORD Vital Statistics data constitute an integral part of demo- , graphic science. If the Census could be regarded as measu­ ring the "stock" of the population at a point of time, vital statistics represents the "flow" by measuring natality and mortality annually. Vital Statistics have, therefore, to portray "a continuous process" of population change and the only satisfactory source of vital statistics is the records of the civil registration system. As someone observed, "Vital Statistics have to do with people rather than with things and consequently this branch of Statistics has, perhaps, the second oldest history in the world surpassed in antiquity only by the closely related Census". India has a long tradition of registration of vital events­ basically births and deaths. Like the Census, the Civil Registration System is a hundred years old. However, the Civil Registration was not uniformly administered through­ out the country and it has been functioning at different levels of efficiency in various States. The importance of reliable data on vital events is realised but the problems of collection of the data in a vast country as India where 80 per cent of the people live in over half a million villages spread for and wide, are such that completeness of registration of vital events cannot be easily achieved. The need for improvement of vital statistics had engaged the attention of the Government on several occasions and a number of Committees and Con­ ferences had gone into the problem and had made far-reaching recommendations. It is, therefore, of interest to trace the historical evolution of the vital statistics system in different parts of India, the various methods, by which vital statistics were obtained and the present status of the system which revolves round the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. This publication is designed to provide an insight into the various efforts that have been made to develop vital statistics in India. A more appropriate occasion could not have been found for documenting the history of the registration system in India than the Centenary of the ~ Indian Census. This document has, therefore, been made a part of the Monograph Series of the Indian Census Centenary Celebrations in 1972. In the preparation of this publication, material has been drawn freely from the Report of Famine Commission (1880), Royal (x) Commission on Agriculture (1924), Royal Commission on Labour (1928), The Central Advisory Board of Health (1939), Fales WHO Report (1952), Registrar General's Scheme (1952), Review of the Registration System of Births and Deaths in India, issued by Directorate General, Health Services (1959), Manickavelu Committee Report (1960), First Working Group on Plan Schemes-Vital Statistics (1964), Proceedings of the Conference on State Problems (1965), Recommendations of the Conference on Improvement of Registration and Compila­ tion of Vital Statistics-Hyderabad (1967), and Paper on Registration of Births and Deaths in India for ECAFE Seminar (1968). I must thank the State Departments responsible for collect­ ing the vital statistics, who readily responded and supplied the requisite information for the preparation of this Mono­ graph. The Vital Statistics Division of this Office has done commendable work in bringing together in this compact volume the material widely scattered in the reports of numerous Committees which dealt with the development of Vital Statis­ tics in India. I am happy to record my appreciation of the efforts put in by Shri S. S. Sota, Investigator, Shri M. M. Dua, Assistant Director of Census Operations, Shri R. K. Gupta, Research Officer, Dr. M. Holla, Senior Research Officer and Shri R. B. Lal, Assistant Registrar General of the Vital Statistics Division. NEW DELHI; A. CHANDRA SEKHAR, 25-4-1972. Registrar General, India PART I NATIONAL REVIEW CHAPTER 1*· mSTORICAL BACKGROUND 1.01 Vital Statistics which deal with an individual's entrance into or departure from life together with the changes in the civil status during his/her life time, is a branch of statistics which has a long history. During this long history the mode of collection and the utility of vital statistics have also changed. Vital statistics which filled an ecclesiastical need in the past, are presently the basis for measuring changes in population characteristics. 1.02 In earlier times, the registration of births and deaths in most European countries was done by Church and other religious institutions. The main­ tenance of such records appears to have originated in Spain at the instance of the Archbishop of Toledo in 1497. In Britain the recording of these events was made compulsory in 1538, by the order of Thomas Cromwelt who was Vicar-General under Henry VIII. In Canada, more particularly in the province of Quebec Catholic communities maintained statistics of births, deaths and marriages, ever since 1621.