In Bangkok, a commitment from Asia Pacific nations to count every single birth and death 

Governments across Asia and the Pacific, on Thursday, June 25, 2025, signed off on a landmark decision to ensure the all births are registered and all deaths are recorded by 2030, at the third ministerial conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics for Asia and the Pacific, at Bangkok, Thailand. This is expected to bring the bison of universal, inclusive and resilient CRVS systems a step closer to reality. 

What are CRVS and why are they important?

The United Nations defines civil registration and vital statistics as the “continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events of the population in accordance with the law.” 

These vital events include births, deaths and marriages, divorces, besides causes of death. The focus of the nations is on registering births and deaths as a fundamental aspect of a person’s legal identity, and besides, grant access to a whole range of life cycle benefits/functions for any one living in a society. Birth registration grants individuals formal legal recognition, enabling access to essential rights and services, including health services. Death certificates serve as legal proof of death, supporting families with matters such as inheritance, insurance and other administrative processes. 

In 2014, the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), launched the “CRVS Decade” to ‘Get every one in the picture.’ The decadal progress was measured in a review that was then launched as a publication last week. 

In her preface to the publication, Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, wrote: “Importantly, civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems help protect populations in vulnerable situations, as birth and marriage registration can serve as safeguards against child marriage, trafficking and modern slavery by verifying age and identity.” Acknowledging legal identity in good governance and justice, is also target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Birth registration has an intergenerational impact, empowering registered mothers to secure legal identity and rights for their children, breaking cycles of invisibility and exclusion. 

Earlier, speaking to the media, Ms. Alisjahbana said the ID card is the most important part of every one’s wallet, and as such it goes beyond a mere document. There have been accelerated actions by many countries that have led to better registration rates in these nations, and the successes have come as a result of collaborative work in the region, learning from each other’s work. 

As a result, over the last decade, in the countries in the Asia Pacific region, the number of children under 5 who are unregistered had dropped to 51 million, from 135 million in 2012, a reduction of more than 60%. 29 countries currently have reported over 90% registration of births in a year, and 30 countries have achieved this for death registration. The quality of cause of death reporting has also significantly improved, ESCAP acknowledged. 

However, despite this progress, an estimated 14 million children across the region still do not have their births registered by their first birthday. Every year, an approximate 6.9 million deaths also go unrecorded.

Extension of deadline

Responding to a question on the future of the programme, Ms. Alisjahbana said: “We have been very fortunate in seeing significant progress, and political will and investments in this decade. They have paid off. But there is a lot of work to be done yet, and there is in place a very good momentum to accelerate operations and digitalisation to ensure registration. So the consensus among member nations is to extend it to 2030.” 

With the chosen decade complete, but 100% registration still not achieved, the Declaration has decided to extend the roadmap to 2030, the end of the decade, with people at the centre. This one calls for inclusive and accessible service delivery, harnessing the power of digital transformation, strengthening legal foundations and building inter-operable data systems. Governments also provided commitments to ensuring gender equity in registration, safeguarding personal data and privacy. 

Indian scenario

In India, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner is responsible for civil registration as well as the production of vital statistics. The Ministry of Health supports the civil registration system providing incentives for registration, manpower and logistics support under the National Health Mission. There is no fee for birth registration within the prescribed period of 21 days, although fees for birth certificates may vary according to State/local body.

The Indian national CRVS coordination mechanism was established in August 2015, while a national CRVS strategy and a comprehensive assessment are still in progress.

In 2011, the Office of the Registrar General identified challenges such as lack of awareness regarding the need and importance of registration, low priority accorded to the system of civil registration by the States, lack of coordination among the concerned departments and low level of reporting by registration units. 

To tackle these issues, several initiatives were launched. Among these measures were developing a software application for online and offline registration of birth and death covering the entire gamut of the civil registration system: registration of events, generation of certificates, and generation of statistical tables and reports. In addition, a new project on data digitisation is being implemented, with the support of UNICEF, to keep old records in easy to retrieve digital form has started. This will help in storage of registers in electronic format and allow easy access to the records.

Digital transformation

Ms. Alisjahbana earlier also acknowledged this, in response to a question from The Hindu, that India with its strength and leadership in digital transformation has helped a lot with rolling out a CRVS system that can be implemented digitally. Tanja Sejersen, Statistician, ESCAP, who spoke to press persons, along with Ms. Alishjahbana, said, the use of technology has been super helpful in certain countries in advancing the principle of registration, but in other countries, could be a stumbling block. There has been, since the launch of the Decade of CRVS, a broader push for linking digital transformation.

India’s representative at the Ministerial conference, Nityanand Rai, Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs, said the country has embarked an citizen-centric activities that will make universal registration possible across the country. The registration of births and deaths is mandatory under the Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969, and amendments to it, have made possible digital registration of births and deaths and the recognition of electronic documents that can be stored safely and securely in the Digilocker by all, obviating the need for presenting hard copies of documents. 

In India, legal provisions now cover the registration of adopted, orphaned, abandoned, surrendered, and surrogate children, along with children of single parents or unmarried mothers. It has been made mandatory for medical institutions to provide cause of death certificates to the Registrar. He added that a new central CRVS portal had been launched too. As a result of these proactive policies, the registration of births had increased from just over 86% at the beginning of the CRVS decade to over 96% in India, he said. 

Children participants the ministerial conference made a strong pitch for ensuring registration for all children irrespective of the many variables that may make it difficult for their parents to register their births. “Bureaucracy shouldn’t be the reason we remain invisible,” they said.

As the conference wound to a conclusion, the nations’ commitments seemed solid. If commitments count, then strident steps had already been made towards achieving universal registration in the Asia and Pacific region. The words of Siromi Turaga, Minister for Justice and Acting Attorney General, Fiji, during his address at the ministerial event, must go home though, to every nation: “The progress of the decade was only possible because of shared commitment in the region. As we look ahead to 2030…together we can ensure that every person in our region is seen heard and counted.

(This reporter was at Bangkok at the invitation of UN-ESCAP)