We missed this earlier: The central government wants to create a national database for registered births and deaths, a proposed amendment to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1969 indicates. The database would be used to update multiple records, including the National Population Register (NPR) and the Aadhaar database.
Registered births and deaths are currently only recorded by state governments. Critics fear that this amendment is a step towards the creation of the highly controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC). The Ministry for Home Affairs is accepting comments on the proposed amendment till December 2.
What will the database be used for?
Under the proposed amendment, the Registrar General of India will create a national database of registered births and deaths which will be used to update the following registers:
- Population Register prepared under the Citizenship Act, 1955
- Electoral Registers or Electoral Rolls prepared under Representation of People Act, 1951
- Aadhaar Database prepared under Aadhaar Act, 2016,
- Ration Card database prepared under National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA);
- Passport Database prepared under the Passport Act
- Driving Licence database under Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019
Database violates right to privacy, will be used for NPR-NRC: Critics
In a series of tweets last month, MP Asaduddin Owaisi highlighted that the database will be used to create the National Register of Citizens and update electoral rolls while adding that it was unconstitutional:
This violates Article 324 of the Constitution that gives independence to ECI. It also violates the Constitution as the NPR rules are themselves unconstitutional and data should not be collected under it.
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) October 31, 2021
Further, Owaisi also claimed that the amendment violates the right to privacy, using data collected for one purpose for another purpose altogether:
The right to privacy includes the right to be protected from such acts where data is collected for one purpose (in this case, birth registration) and to use it for other purposes not expressly authorised by the person giving their data (NPR, voter enrolment, etc).
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) October 31, 2021
Meanwhile, security researcher Srinivas Kodali pointed out that the aim of the amendment was to create a ‘360 degree profile databases’, comparing it to recent measures by the Hyderabad Police:
MHA extends deadline for consultation of amendments to Registration of Births and Deaths Act to December 2nd. The proposed amendments include linking Aadhaar, Motor Vehicles,Birth, Death, Voter data registries. It aims to build 360 degree profile databases like Hyderabad Police. pic.twitter.com/4vMQVnassz
— Srinivas Kodali (@digitaldutta) November 17, 2021
Also read:
- NATGRID: Government’s Controversial Surveillance Project In Final Stages
- EC Will Create A Platform For Aadhaar-Voter ID Linkage: Senior Election Commission Official
- Hyderabad Police Again Conducting Facial Recognition Scans Of ‘Suspects’ During Patrolling
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