Pandemic fallout mirrored in CRS data

Udayan Hazarika

(The writer can be reached at udayanhazarika@hotmail.com)

 The Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1969, popularly known as the RBD Act, is the backbone of India’s Civil Registration System (CRS). India also has a history of registering births, deaths, and marriages during the British regime under the 1886 Act. As of 2024, India has a strong system of civil registration with 2.93 lakhs of registering units, of which 98 per cent are reporting units as well. The state-wise, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of registering units (62,700), followed by Maharashtra (43,139) and then Karnataka (33,111), etc. Today, CRS is the most reliable institution having the capability to collect, process, and disseminate vital statistics in India. The institution defines its system as a “unified process of continuous, permanent, compulsory, and universal recording of vital events (births, deaths, stillbirths) and characteristics thereof”.

CRS has recently published their vital statistics concerning the year 2022.   The year 2022 has significance in the history of vital statistics because, despite being the first post-pandemic year, it is still dampened with the trauma of the terrible period of pandemic mortality. The 2022 statistics show that India had 254.39 lakhs registered births in that year as against 242.02 lakhs in 2021, giving an annual increment of 5.11 per cent.  The situation has improved since the period of Covid-19. In the pre-Covid-19 year of 2019, there was a steady rise in the number of registered births, and in that year, it registered a rise of 6.67 per cent compared to the previous year. However, in 2020, the COVID-19 year (in CRS registration, a year is equivalent to a calendar year, i.e., beginning on 1st January and ending on 31st December), there was a fall in the number of registered births to the tune of 2.4 per cent. It was due to the lockdown and extended lockdown period spreading from March 2020 to December 2020, when there was a complete ban on social celebration of marriages, while hospitals were utilised fully for Covid-19 patients and people had to postpone their planning of expanding their families. As a natural consequence, there was a reduction in the number of child births, leading to a fall in the registration of births. This trend continued till the next year (2021), which, although it was a Covid year, still had some relaxations in holding marriages, and also many hospitals were released by the governments—earlier taken over for Covid treatments. Thus, the rate of contraction in the registration of births in the year 2021 was quite insignificant at 0.08 per cent, which indeed was not in conformity with the expectations of the demographers. This decrease or increase in the magnitude of registration of births is no doubt significant for the reason that it clearly reflected the social situation prevailing at that time—and there lies the credibility of the system.

The increase or decrease in the number of registered births over the period of time discussed above should not be looked upon as the increase or decrease in birth rate. This registered birth is actually a subset of the total births in the country, which is a figure much bigger than we think. This is because many remote corners of the country, which are devoid of any health care facilities or agencies, still do not care for the registration of births of their wards. In many cases registration of birth is done within the specified time.  The Act of 1969 provides for a 21-day stipulated period within which a birth is to be registered.  Moreover, there are also some areas where people still prefer the care of local dhai to trained ANMs. In such cases registration is done sometimes even after a lapse of one or two years after the births. Among the states, the highest number of births registered was in Uttar Pradesh, with 54.43 lakh births in 2022, followed by 19.19 lakh in Maharashtra and 19.02 lakh in Rajasthan. On the other hand, the lowest numbers of births were registered in the State of Sikkim, with only 6,177 births, followed by Goa, with 17,326 births. In Assam, the total number of births registered in 2022 was 7.07 lakhs, of which Nagaon, with 71,436 births, tops the list, followed by Dhubri with 57,084 births and Sribhumi with 42,132.

The next vital event in the life of a human being is death. In case of deaths, the total number of registered deaths comes to 102.25 lakhs in 2022 as against 81.16 lakhs in 2021—an increase of about 26 per cent, which is quite a significant number. Such a high rate of registered deaths has a direct bearing on the Covid-19 deaths. Although, as per registered figures, India has a total Covid death toll of 5.34 lakhs, controversy emerged after the publication of reports of some studies conducted by some reputed institutions claiming that India’s Covid-19 mortalities have been understated. The data on mortality made available by the CRS also exceeded significantly the mortality figures in general.   The total mortality figure after statistical adjustment would come to around 20 lakh excess deaths in the second year of Covid-19. Among the states, the highest number of deaths registered was in Uttar Pradesh, with 12.23 lakhs in 2022, which is followed by Maharashtra with 7.91 lakhs deaths and Tamil Nadu with 6.96 lakhs. In Assam, the total number of deaths registered in the year 2022 was 1.90 lakhs, of which the highest number of deaths recorded was 17,376 in Nagaon, followed by 15,552 in Dibrugarh and 14,376 in Cachar.

Let’s now examine the numbers of infant deaths registered during the year in question. Infant death is worked out by calculating the infants who died between 1 month and 1 year. Total infant death, or infant mortality, is an indicator of the status of healthcare facilities in a particular area, the economic condition of the people, maternal health, the health knowledge of the families, etc. The total infant deaths registered in India in 2022 were 1.43 lakhs. The highest number of deaths was registered in the State of Maharashtra, with 17,632, followed by Gujarat, with 12,570 registered deaths. In Assam, the total infant deaths registered were 2919, of which the highest number of deaths registered was in Jorhat with 412, followed by Cachar with 355 and Nagaon with 303.

Sex ratio is an important demographic characteristic that reveals the number of females per thousand males in a particular locality or country. As per the 2022 SRS registrar, India’s sex ratio at birth has been calculated at 933. This value indicates that there are only 933 females per 1000 males in the country. This is not a very satisfactory situation. Among the states, Nagaland has the highest sex ratio of 1068 females per 1000 males, followed by Arunachal Pradesh with a sex ratio of 1036.  Bihar has the lowest sex ratio of 891, and it happens to be the only state having a sex ratio below 900. Assam has a sex ratio of 933, which is a significant improvement over last year’s figure of 868 females per thousand males.