New Delhi: Government plans to link birth, death data with electoral rolls

New Delhi : The Union government is planning to bring a Bill in Parliament to link data related to birth and death with electoral rolls and the overall development process, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday.

Inaugurating the 'Jan Ganana Bhawan', the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Shah said census is a process that may form the basis of development agenda. Digital, complete and accurate census figures will have multi-dimensional benefits, Shah said, adding that planning-based on the census data ensures development reaches the poorest of the poor. Shah also said if the birth and death certificate data are preserved in a special way, development works can be planned properly.

"A Bill to link death and birth register with electoral rolls will be introduced in parliament. Under this process, when a person turns 18, his or her name will be automatically included in the electoral rolls. Similarly, when a person dies, that information automatically will go to the Election Commission, which will start the process of deleting the name from the voters' list," he said. Officials said the bill to amendment the Registration of Birth and Death Act (RBD), 1969, will also facilitate matters related to the issuance of driving licence and passport and giving benefits of the government welfare schemes to people besides others.

"If the data of birth and death certificate is preserved in a special way, then by estimating the time between the census, planning of development works can be done properly," he said.

Earlier, the development process happened in fragments because adequate data for development was not available, he said.

After 70 years of independence planning was adopted to electrify every village, to give a home to everyone, to give tap drinking water to everyone, to give healthcare to everyone, to give toilets to every home, Shah said.

"It took so long because no one had the idea as to how much money will be required to fulfil these basic necessities, because the utility of the census was not conceived, the data related to the census were not accurate, the available data was not accessible online and coordination with census and planning authorities were absent," he said.