Aadhaar may become must for registering births and deaths in India, here are the other details of the Bill

The proposed amendment seeks to modernise the registration process for birth and death certificates in order to keep up with societal and technical advances. The development of national and state-level databases for recorded births and deaths is a key part of the proposed amendments. This will aid in updating the other databases.

The birth certificate will become the official document of a person's date and place of birth under the new legislation. Individuals born on or after the start date of the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023, would be issued certificates as per the amendments. The certificate will be required for a variety of purposes, including school admissions, obtaining a driving licence, enrolment in the voter's list, marriage registration, government employment, passport issuance, and obtaining an Aadhaar number.

The bill also addresses the registration process for adopted, orphaned, abandoned, surrendered, or surrogate children and those with single parents or unmarried mothers.

As part of the new mandate, all medical institutions must provide cause of death certificates to the Registrar, with a copy given to the closest relative.

The bill will establish a national database of registered births and deaths maintained by the Registrar General. Chief Registrars at the state level and Registrars at the local level will have to share data with the national database. The Chief Registrar will also maintain a similar database at the state level. The Registrar-General of India will be known as the Registrar General of India, according to the bill.

If the bill is passed, the database will be used to update the National Population Register (NPR), which is the first step towards creating the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The data will also be used to update other databases such as electoral registers, Aadhaar, ration cards, passports, and driving license databases.

Changing 50-year-old legislation in this manner would transform a basic administrative exercise into a population-control device that might be used against citizens, according to activists. Furthermore, combining multiple databases and utilising Aadhaar might result in privacy issues, and such concerns have already been addressed in court, with the Supreme Court recognising citizens' right to privacy.