The Civil Registration System 2020 Annual Report did not provide data on the level of death registration, but a sample analysis of the recently released Civil Registration System report for the he year shows that the level of death registration in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which account for more than a quarter of the country’s population, were 58.7% and 64.6% respectively.
Despite this, the national figure was 99.9%. So how did the overall level of death registration increase from 92% in 2019 to 99.9% in 2020 despite low levels of registration in several populous states? On the contrary, the level of enrollment was expected to drop in a year when there was a total lockdown and restrictions during certain parts of the year across the country. The answer lies in the huge leap in the level of registration in many states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh which had already reached 100% death registration in 2019 even .
The level of death registration in these states ranged from 195% in Delhi and 148% in Tamil Nadu to 137% in Andhra Pradesh and 119% in Maharashtra. How is it possible that the registration exceeds 100%? The reason lies in the way recording levels are calculated by the CRS. This is done by estimating the number of deaths in a given year using the projected mid-year population for the year and the death rate obtained from the EAS. This gives the “estimated deaths”. The number of recorded deaths is then compared to this to obtain the level of recording. The fact that some states are showing registration levels well above 100% suggests that the estimated number of deaths is much lower than the actual count.
There were several states where, despite improving the level of death registration from the 2019 level, it was well below 100%. For example, in Bihar it went from 51.6% to 64.6%, in Jharkhand it went from 58.8% to 60%, in Chhattisgarh it went from 81.5% to 83.1% and in Assam it rose from 74% to 86.7%. In the case of Uttar Pradesh, which accounts for nearly 17% of India’s population, the level of enrollment actually dropped, not unexpectedly in a pandemic year, from 63.3% in 2019 only 58.7%.
CRS reports, population projections and SRS reports are all published by the Office of the Census Commissioner and Registrar General of India.
Despite this, the national figure was 99.9%. So how did the overall level of death registration increase from 92% in 2019 to 99.9% in 2020 despite low levels of registration in several populous states? On the contrary, the level of enrollment was expected to drop in a year when there was a total lockdown and restrictions during certain parts of the year across the country. The answer lies in the huge leap in the level of registration in many states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh which had already reached 100% death registration in 2019 even .
The level of death registration in these states ranged from 195% in Delhi and 148% in Tamil Nadu to 137% in Andhra Pradesh and 119% in Maharashtra. How is it possible that the registration exceeds 100%? The reason lies in the way recording levels are calculated by the CRS. This is done by estimating the number of deaths in a given year using the projected mid-year population for the year and the death rate obtained from the EAS. This gives the “estimated deaths”. The number of recorded deaths is then compared to this to obtain the level of recording. The fact that some states are showing registration levels well above 100% suggests that the estimated number of deaths is much lower than the actual count.
There were several states where, despite improving the level of death registration from the 2019 level, it was well below 100%. For example, in Bihar it went from 51.6% to 64.6%, in Jharkhand it went from 58.8% to 60%, in Chhattisgarh it went from 81.5% to 83.1% and in Assam it rose from 74% to 86.7%. In the case of Uttar Pradesh, which accounts for nearly 17% of India’s population, the level of enrollment actually dropped, not unexpectedly in a pandemic year, from 63.3% in 2019 only 58.7%.
CRS reports, population projections and SRS reports are all published by the Office of the Census Commissioner and Registrar General of India.
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