Civil Registration System (CRS) Portal | 16 Aug 2024

Source: TH

The centralised Civil Registration System (CRS) portal, responsible for registering births and deaths across India, has been facing significant technical issues, leading to widespread disruptions in the issuance of certificates.

According to the 2023 Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act, all births and deaths in India from 1st October 2023 will be digitally registered through the CRS portal.
- The digital birth certificates will serve as proof of date of birth for various services.
- The centralised database will update the National Population Register (NPR), ration cards, property registration and electoral rolls.
  - The NPR, collected in 2010 and updated in 2015, has a database of 119 crore residents.
- So far, 23 States and six union territories have migrated to the new portal. States such as Tamil Nadu which have their own portals send the data compulsorily to the Centre in a real-time basis as mandated by the 2023 amendment.
States have flagged issues in the CRS portal, such as slow performance, frequent error messages, and data syncing problems. These issues have caused delays in issuing certificates.