Social Exclusion in Civil Registration in a Lagging State of Bihar, India

Abhay Kumar, UNICEF
JAYANTA K. BASU, Consultant

Background: CRVS systems strengthening efforts focused on improving birth registration, a fundamental right under Article 7 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, 1989. Lack of birth registration leaves children from all cross-section of the society vulnerable throughout their lives as they don’t have evidence of basic identification information. The present paper attempts to analyse the factors responsible for social exclusion in CRVS in lagging state Bihar. Methods: Routine births and deaths registration data for Bihar as per Civil Registration System portal and NFHS-5 was used for disaggregated analysis. Results: Significant gender disparities were observed in birth and death registration in Bihar over the years (male birth registration is higher than female birth registration by 8-10%; male death registration is higher than female death registration by 20-23%). NFHS – 5 also shows significant disparities in births registered and having certificate among poorest and richest (49% poorest vis-à-vis 69% richest) and rural and urban (61% urban vis-à-vis 56% rural). Conclusion: There is a need to reach CRVS systems to all cross section of the society till the last mile. There is also a need for district wise decentralised plan as generic state wise CRVS plan may not yield desired result.

Keywords: Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination

See extended abstract.