India Saw Uptick in Deaths, Fewer Births Registered in First Year of Pandemic: CRS Data

India saw an uptick in the number of deaths registered in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, while the number of births registered in the Civil Registration System (CRS) in that year declined 2.4 per cent as compared to 2019.

The number of deaths increased by 6.2 per cent in 2020 from the year before that, according to data released by the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) on Tuesday.

The Covid-19 pandemic, the tough lockdown that was necessitated by the outbreak in March, the restriction on movement and activities that continued till the end of the year despite the ease in restrictions that began from May are factors that may have made it difficult for people to register births in 2020, explaining the decline in birth rate, Hindustan Times reported.

The increase in death rate, meanwhile, is likely a result of consistent efforts by the government to get all deaths registered and primarily the pandemic-related deaths.

A total of 24.22 million births and 8.12 million deaths were registered in India in 2020, according to a CRS report released on Tuesday by the Office of the Registrar General of India under home ministry.

CRS is one of the primary sources of the most detailed annual birth and death data in India, as it is based on administrative data generated from compulsory registration of births and deaths.

As per the CRS data, 52 per cent (12.6 million ) of the 24.22 million births registered were boys and 48 per cent (11.6 million) were girls. In deaths, 60.2 per cent were of men and 39.8 per cent were of women, while 1.8 per cent registered deaths were of infants.

It is pertinent to note here that neither a fall in birth nor rise in death registration is unprecedented. The number of births registered decreased by 0.43 per cent in 2017 and the number of registered deaths increased by 1.8 per cent in the same year, the report said. The number of deaths registered increased by 7.5 per cent and 9.9 per cent in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

India, however, is not the first country to report a fall in births during a pandemic as similar trend was reported in many high-income countries.

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