Registrar General of India:
* Established in 1949 under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
* Headed by the Registrar General and Ex-Officio Census Commissioner of India.
* Role: To ensure systematic collection of statistics related to India’s population size, growth, and distribution.
* Responsible for implementing the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969.
* The Registrar General is typically a civil servant of Joint Secretary rank.
* Also conducts demographic and linguistic surveys, in addition to the decennial Census.
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### Key Functions of the RGI:
* Conducting the Census of India:
Provides detailed data about the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of the population.
* Linguistic Survey of India (LSI):
Conducted alongside the decennial Census, it provides a comprehensive picture of India’s linguistic diversity.
* The first Linguistic Survey was completed by George Abraham Grierson in 1928.
* Civil Registration System (CRS):
A mandatory system for birth and death registration in India.
* Serves as a real-time, continuous population data collection mechanism.
* A birth certificate is issued by the registrar in accordance with Section 12 of the Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969.
* The RBD Act, 1969 was amended in 2023, mandating registration of all births and deaths on the Centre’s portal from October 1, 2023.
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