Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner (ORGI)

Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner (ORGI)

Subject: Polity

Section: Statutory Bodies

Context: WHO’s latest updates on Global Health Estimates (GHE) revealed that India accounting for 80 per cent of the excess mortality during Covid-19. India informed WHO that in view of the availability of authentic data published through the Civil Registration System (CRS) by Registrar General of India (RGI), mathematical models should not be used for projecting excess mortality numbers for India.

Concept:

Functions of ORGI:

The office of RGI is primarily responsible for the following activities:

• Housing & Population Census: The Census Commissioner, India is the statutory authority vested with the responsibility of conducting the Housing & Population Census in India under Census Act, 1948 and the Rules framed thereunder. Planning, coordination and supervision of the field activities; data processing; compilation, tabulation and dissemination of Census results are the primary duties of this office.
• Civil Registration System (CRS): The Census Commissioner, India is also designated as Registrar General, India under the Registration of Births & Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969, which provides for the compulsory registration of births and deaths. In this role, the RGI coordinates the functioning of the civil registration and vital statistics system in the country through all States and UTs.
• Sample Registration System (SRS): Implementation of Sample Registration System, wherein large-scale sample survey of vital events is conducted on a half-yearly basis, is also the responsibility of the ORG&CCI. SRS is an important source of vital rates like Birth Rate, Death Rate, Infant Mortality Rate and Maternal Mortality Rate at the State level in the country.
• National Population Register (NPR): In pursuance to provisions contained in Citizenship Rules, 2003 framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955, the National Population Register is prepared by collecting information relating to all persons who are usually residing in the country.
• Mother Tongue Survey: The project surveys the mother tongues, which are returned consistently across two and more Census decades. The research programme documents the linguistic features of the selected mother tongues.