Believe it or not, births and deaths are not being registered in the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh as the government has made no efforts to extend training for on-line registration or has sought budgetary allocation, 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 registrars did not register any death during this period in their zone.

According to the statistics published by Registrar General of India, only 62.5 per cent births were registered in UP as compared to the national average of 86 per cent. The level of registration (LoR) in case of deaths in UP is just 35.5 per cent against the national average of 78.1 per cent.

Wherever deaths and births are registered, the Chief Registrar of Uttar Pradesh has not linked them with important schemes and programmes of the government. This means, the schemes formed by the government are merely based on estimates. 

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India in its audit said that the state government made no arrangement to impart training of on-line registration in rural areas. The Chief Registrar of UP prepared and submitted plans only for urban areas and placed demand for financial assistance for cities. No effort was made to start digital registration of births and deaths in the rural areas and this is reflected in the total registration figures of Uttar Pradesh, the CAG said in its report.

Uttar Pradesh, home to 220 million people, is one of the most backward states of India where the basic health facilities and quality of education is poor. Over 70 per cent of the state’s population lives in villages.

Civil registration is not on the priority list of the UP government is evident from the fact that there is no provision in the state budget for activities relating to 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 Uttar Pradesh neither prepared the plan for creation and advocacy of publicity and digitalisation of records nor demanded funds from the RGI. As a result, the state government did not get fund to strengthen registration of births and deaths.

Government law says that in respect of births and deaths in state-run hospitals, health centres, private nursing homes and primary health centres (PHCs), the medical officer in-charge or any person authorised by him/her in this behalf is to report the events of births and deaths to the designated registrar of that area. In case of any irregularity, the monitoring officials, including district magistrate and chief medical officer, is required to take action against the erring official.

The audit observed that in a survey carried out in 667 nursing homes in six districts, 226 nursing homes did not provide information about births and deaths to the registrar of the area concerned. What is shocking is that no penal action was taken by the monitoring agency in this regard.

An enquiry from the office of the Chief Registrar of Uttar Pradesh did not elicit any response about defaulted hospitals or nursing homes as it did not have information on the number of private nursing homes in UP that did not provide information about deaths and births in their establishments to the registrar.

The Chief Registrar admitted that seven out of 75 registrars in four out of six test-checked districts did not register any event of birth and 14 registrars of five districts did not register any death between 2012 and 2017.

According to an estimate, 1.37 lakh births and 0.16 lakh deaths took place during that period in that area but none of the state-run hospitals or private nursing homes registered these events with the registrar.

Philip W Setel, director, Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, during a training programme held recently in Bangkok said that primary purpose of registration of event of birth and death was to create a legal document that could be used to establish and protect rights of the individual. A secondary purpose was to create a data source for compilation of vital statistics. “This data base is also a source of statistics for understanding population dynamics for comprehensive planning for programmes and schemes for the welfare of people,” he said.

Uttar Pradesh has probably missed this vital link by not registering the deaths and births effectively and missing out in preparing a holistic programme for the welfare of people, particularly children in health and education sectors.