Impact of Policy Initiatives on Civil Registration System in Haryana

BACKGROUND: Despite the existence of Registration of Birth and Death Act (1969), Civil Registration System (CRS) in India registered only 68.3% of the births and 63.2% of the deaths. Hence, National Population Policy (2000) emphasized the need to improve registration of vital events. In 2005, Haryana initiated policy changes to enhance registration of vital events. We evaluated the impact of these policy changes on CRS in 2009. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Records and reports of CRS were reviewed. On the basis of the birth and deaths reported by the Sample Registration System, the proportion of births and deaths registered by CRS were estimated using the projected population from 2001 Census. RESULTS: Before 2005, Police Stations were the registration centers in rural Haryana. On 1(st) January 2005, the birth and death registration was made the responsibility of Primary Health Centers (PHCs). Medical Officers at PHCs were designated as Registrar and Pharmacists as Sub-Registrar of Births and Deaths. Auxiliary Nurse Midwife and Anganwadi Workers facilitated the registration. Till 2004, the registration of births was stagnant at the level of 70% for several years, which increased to 95% by 2009. Similarly registration of death events increased from 73.5% to 92.1%. CONCLUSION: Haryana state is still to achieve complete registration of births and deaths, but certainly shift of registration from police to health department has strengthened the CRS.