Govt to record both parents’ religion for birth registration
As per the model rules drafted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, both parents of a child will now need to individually declare their religion when registering their child’s birth, according to a report by The Hindu. Previously, birth registers only recorded the family’s religion.
In the proposed new ‘Form No.1 – Birth Report’, the column for indicating the child’s religion will be expanded to include separate entries for the ‘religion of the father’ and ‘religion of the mother’.
This change also applies to parents of adopted children.
The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023, enacted by Parliament on August 11 last year, mandates the maintenance of a national-level birth and death database. This database may be used to update various government records such as the National Population Register (NPR), electoral rolls, Aadhaar number, ration card, passport, driving license, property registration and other notified databases.
Effective October 1, 2023, the law requires all reported births and deaths in the country to be digitally registered through the Union government’s portal for the Civil Registration System (crsorgi.gov.in).
Under this system, digital birth certificates issued will serve as a single document for verifying the date of birth for various purposes, including admission to educational institutions.
