Current practice is to record religion of child’s family only; the database may be used to update NPR, voter rolls, Aadhaar, ration cards, passports and driving licence; States yet to notify new rules
When registering the birth of a child, parents will now be required to separately record the religion of both the child’s father and mother, according to Model Rules drafted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. These Rules will have to be adopted and notified by State governments before they are implemented.
Earlier, only the family’s religion was recorded in birth registers. The proposed “Form No.1-Birth Report” will expand the column requiring a tick mark selection “for religion” of the child to now also state the “religion of father” and “religion of mother”. Similar changes have been made for parents of an adopted child.
According to the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, 2023, passed by the Parliament on August 11 last year, the birth and death database will be maintained at the national level and may be used to update the National Population Register (NPR), electoral rolls, Aadhaar number, ration card, passport, driving licence, property registration, and such other databases as may be notified.
This story was originally published in thehindu.com. Read the full story here.