Assessing Mortality Registration in India: A Gender Lens

Chandan Kumar, International Institute for Population Sciences, India
Suryakant Yadav, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Solveig Cunningham, Emory University
Aashish Gupta, Harvard University

Complete or improving civil registration systems in national and sub-national areas in low- and middle-income countries provide several opportunities to better understand population health and its determinants. This study aims to assess death registration coverage by sex and place of residence and evaluate the quality of mortality reporting in the CRS system at the national and sub-national levels from 2009-2020. We estimated death registration completeness, ASDR, and life expectancy by sex, place of residence, and age group from the RGI and GBD population based on the SRS, GBD death rate, and unit level from NFHS 2015-16 & NFHS 2019-21. There was a considerable difference in the death registration level by sex (male-102%, female-88% and Male-98%, female-85%), respectively, RGI and GBD populations at national levels. No evidence has been found regarding CRS underestimates mortality in those states that have completed more than 90 % of death registration. We find that life expectancy at birth was 71.65 years for women in 2017 and 71.4 years for men in 2020. The findings strengthen the case for more careful attention towards mortality records within low- and middle-income countries and for their better dissemination by government agencies.

Keywords: Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, Gender Dynamics, Data and Methods, Data visualisation

See extended abstract.