At Bangkok event, a commitment to count every birth and death

Context:

• At a key regional conference in Bangkok, Asia-Pacific nations pledged to ensure that all births and deaths are registered by 2030, extending the CRVS Decade. 
• This aligns with SDG Target 16.9 which advocates for legal identity for all, including birth registration.

Key Highlights:

• The third Ministerial Conference on CRVS for Asia and the Pacific concluded with a declaration to achieve universal civil registration by 2030.
• Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) refers to continuous, permanent, and universal recording of vital events including births, deaths, marriages, and divorces.
• Birth registration provides legal identity and access to public services, while death registration is essential for legal, financial, and public health purposes.
• Despite progress, 14 million children in Asia-Pacific are still unregistered by their first birthday and 6.9 million deaths go unrecorded annually.

Detailed Insights:

• 29 countries have achieved over 90% birth registration, and 30 countries have crossed the same mark for death registration.
• Quality of cause-of-death data has significantly improved, aiding public health surveillance.
• The declaration emphasizes inclusive service delivery, digital transformation, and inter-operable data systems.
• Legal identity helps prevent child marriage, human trafficking, and modern slavery by verifying age and identity.
• Registration empowers mothers to ensure legal recognition for children, breaking intergenerational cycles of exclusion.
• The extension to 2030 aims to accelerate operations, build digital infrastructure, and safeguard personal data and privacy.
• India’s representative stated that birth registration in India rose from 86% to over 96% during the CRVS Decade.
• India has digitized the process with online registration systems, Digilocker integration, and a new central CRVS portal.
• Legal provisions now cover adopted, orphaned, abandoned, surrendered, surrogate children, and those born to single/unmarried mothers.
• Registration of cause of death by medical institutions is now mandatory in India.
• Despite digital strides, bureaucratic hurdles continue to marginalize some populations, as voiced by children at the conference.

Way Forward:

• Intensify awareness campaigns in underserved areas to educate about the importance of registration.
• Invest in low-cost, high-reach digital tools for registration in remote areas.
• Enhance inter-agency coordination and train local officials for better service delivery.
• Build data security and privacy mechanisms to ensure trust in digital CRVS platforms.
• Strengthen regional cooperation and cross-border documentation protocols for migrant communities.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Digital CRVS Systems: Use of integrated digital platforms for real-time registration and record-keeping.
• Legal Identity Infrastructure: Systems that link identity (ID cards, Digilocker, etc.) with public service access.
• Vital Statistics: Core for understanding demographic trends and informing public policies.
• SDG Target 16.9: Legal identity for all, including birth registration by 2030.