RTI plea forces Gujarat govt to prepare database of births, deaths

Thanks to an uncommon initiative by a common man from a village in Rajkot district, the people of the state will have a New Year’s gift: the vital data concerning the births and deaths of their near and dear ones will be put in a retrievable format.

This will not only help people get duplicate certificates in the event of the originals being lost but they can also get appropriate information about such important matters even if the official records are destroyed.

Deputy chief registrar of births and deaths, DM Patel, has told the state information commission that from 2011 the births and deaths registration would be computerised and that the National Informatics Centre (NIC) had designed a software that would enable all data to be there on a central server.

Patel said this during the hearing of an appeal filed by one Abdul Haroon Sota from Labanpur village in Rajkot district.

Sota filed the appeal before the information commission after he did not get appropriate and satisfactory reply from the taluka panchayat of Maliya Miyana in Rajkot district to an RTI application.

He had filed the application before the public information officer of Maliya Miyana taluka panchayat in May 2008.

In his RTI application, Sota wanted to know: “Where and in which office can one find the information related to the academics and birth of the children and deaths of the families residing in the vicinity of Navlakhi port, which were registered with Navlakhi Kumar School? In case of non-availability of the information, what was the alternative arrangement to obtain registration of births and deaths as well as school leaving certificates?”

These two questions looked basic if one lost the proof.

When Sota did not get any satisfactory reply, he filed an appeal before the state information commission. While Sota lived in Navlakhi Bunder in Rajkot earlier, he currently lives at Labanpur.

During the hearing, it was revealed that despite the recommendation of the registrar-general of India in 1988, the Gujarat government had failed to frame a policy or guidelines for the reconstruction of the records and registers in the event of their loss or damage. It was also pointed out that there was no alternative system with the government for retrieving such vital records.

It was revealed that the births and deaths in Navlakhi Bunder village were registered in a school which was destroyed first in the 1998 cyclone and then the 2001 earthquake. However, after the quake, a new Navlakhi area was formed and around 400 families who were affected by these natural calamities were given accommodation there. Sota's family had, however, moved to Labanpur after the calamities.

"No specific provision was available in the births and deaths registration law to suggest what was to be done if the original records were destroyed," Patel clarified. 

He, however, pointed out that the office of the registrar-general India had issued a circular in March 1988, citing that the state must have a well-established procedure or guidelines in case of loss or damage of the records of births and deaths.

Moreover, the state had also been asked to send a proposal framing or amending the rules for the registration of births and deaths.

But Patel informed the commission that the chief registrar had not issued any guidelines in this regard. The commission then asked the state machinery to issue appropriate guidelines regarding the same.

The government, after the order, geared up for action. Patel informed the commission that they had already initiated the procedure for framing polices and guidelines that will provide for reconstruction of records in case they are lost.