Change In Birth Certificate Registration Rule

The Indian government has unveiled a draft policy that makes it mandatory for parents to declare their religion when registering the birth of a child. This additional data collection is aimed at creating a unified database for easier access to identity proofs, welfare schemes, and documents like passports.

However, activists have raised privacy concerns regarding the storage of sensitive personal information by government agencies, while critics argue this may further marginalise minorities. Let’s analyse key aspects of this proposed amendment:

Read more: Ayushman Card

Key Challenges

The move, however, has sparked debates questioning the rationale behind mandatory religious declarations as part of a modern civil identification procedure. Critics argue this regressive overreach into personal information goes beyond a reasonable cause. Here are a few concerns that pose possible challenges ahead.

• Modern digital governance hinges on strong identification frameworks for efficient, transparent delivery of services. However, the collection of sensitive data also raises ethical risks of exploitation, discrimination, or unauthorised access.
• Apart from mandatory religious records during birth registration, authorities have also proposed additional demands, requiring medical certificates from doctors attesting to the cause of death of individuals.
• Though the changes aim at maintaining standardised mortality databases at regional and national levels for tracking epidemiological trends, critics have raised some arguments. Healthcare experts state that obtaining death certificates within hours of death could delay funeral procedures due to logistical delays.
• Another key concern cited by activists is whether religion-based profiling through birth records could increase the vulnerability of minority communities facing socio-political discrimination.
• Instances of violence against minority groups often involve fringe elements accusing them of coercion to convert faiths. The availability of data identifying citizens by religion could potentially exacerbate witch hunts during flare-ups stoked by inflammatory rhetoric or rumours on social media platforms seen recently across various states.

However, some support such an open declaration as a means of self-assertion about one’s identity. Overall, a thin line separates empowerment from exploitation when marginalised segments are promised affirmative action but dealt with exclusion in practice, a contradiction playing out along religious divides worldwide.

Read more: Death Certificate