Patna: The Bihar government has unveiled a comprehensive roadmap to strengthen the state’s Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) system, with a focus on ensuring universal, timely and citizen-centric registration of births and deaths.
The roadmap was presented on Monday during a dissemination workshop on the Assessment, Analysis and Redesign (AAR) Report for Strengthening CRVS in Bihar, organised by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES), Government of Bihar, in collaboration with UNICEF and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).
The report identifies key reforms aimed at improving registration coverage, service accessibility and data quality, while strengthening governance and public service delivery.
Key Recommendations
The Assessment, Analysis and Redesign report and an accompanying policy brief recommend decentralising birth and death registration services to the gram panchayat level by designating Panchayat Secretaries as Registrars.
The report also proposes engaging frontline workers, including Anganwadi Workers, Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and JEEViKA Didis, as event notifiers to ensure that births and deaths are reported promptly.
Other recommendations include:
- Strengthening public awareness campaigns on the importance of registration.
- Institutionalising standard operating procedures (SOPs).
- Introducing real-time monitoring dashboards.
- Integrating birth registration with hospital discharge processes.
- Addressing staffing shortages and improving technical capacity.
- Enhancing the quality of mortality data through improved medical certification of causes of death.
Officials said the reforms are intended to make registration services more accessible, efficient and responsive to citizens’ needs.
Minister Calls For Greater Public Awareness
Addressing the workshop, Planning and Development Minister Sribhagwan Singh Kushwaha underscored the importance of universal birth and death registration in protecting citizens’ rights and improving governance.
He urged officials to intensify awareness campaigns, particularly in rural and remote areas, to ensure people understand both the importance of registration and the procedures involved.
Referring to village-level population enumeration efforts that helped improve the delivery of benefits under housing schemes, the minister said accurate registration data could similarly strengthen policy planning and public service delivery.
He also acknowledged UNICEF’s continued support to the department and its work in advancing child and adolescent welfare across Bihar.
Registration Crucial For Evidence-Based Governance
Mihir Kumar Singh, Development Commissioner of Bihar, described birth and death registration as a cornerstone of reliable data and evidence-based governance.
He stressed the importance of bringing private healthcare providers, including doctors and clinics, into the registration framework so that births and deaths are recorded at the point of occurrence.
Singh also called for exploring regulatory measures to achieve universal registration, particularly in the case of non-institutional births through Panchayati Raj Institutions.
He said stronger CRVS systems would improve governance, planning and service delivery across the state.
Focus On Citizen-Centric Services
Delivering the keynote address, Additional Chief Secretary of the Planning and Development Department Dr N. Vijayalaxmi said timely and accurate registration was both a critical public service and an essential source of reliable data for policymaking.
While acknowledging the progress made since Independence, she said the next phase of reforms should focus on making registration services more accessible, efficient and citizen-friendly.
She argued that awareness campaigns alone would not be sufficient and called for stronger inter-departmental coordination, streamlined processes, standardised protocols and supportive regulatory frameworks.
Dr Vijayalaxmi also highlighted the need for collaboration with the Education Department to achieve universal and timely registration across Bihar.
UNICEF Highlights Progress
Dr Monika Nielsen, Chief of UNICEF Bihar, congratulated the state government on achieving more than 90% birth registration coverage, describing it as a significant milestone.
She said the focus must now shift towards ensuring that every birth and death is registered completely, accurately and on time.
Nielsen called for stronger community outreach and greater coordination among departments to make registration services more accessible.
She noted that reliable civil registration data is critical for securing legal identity, protecting rights and improving planning and service delivery.
Reaffirming UNICEF’s partnership with Bihar, she expressed confidence that the state could emerge as a national model for universal and timely registration.
Challenges And Next Steps
Officials presenting the report identified several persistent challenges, including incomplete birth and death registration, delays in processing, limited public awareness, staffing shortages, weak coordination mechanisms and barriers faced by families seeking registration services.
The workshop concluded with discussions on priority actions and implementation pathways that will inform the development of standard operating procedures and a long-term strategic plan for CRVS reforms in Bihar.
Officials said the proposed measures would help accelerate progress towards universal and timely registration of births and deaths across the state.
The vote of thanks was delivered by Ranjit Kumar, Director and Chief Registrar of Births and Deaths at the Directorate of Economics and Statistics.
