A Bill to link birth and death register with electoral rolls will be introduced in the next Parliament session, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday.

The Minister said that registration of births and deaths is important for updating citizens’ register, electoral rolls and list of people who avail themselves of welfare schemes.

Mr. Shah was speaking at the inauguration of the new census building here.

The decennial census that was to be completed in 2021 was indefinitely postponed, initially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government had not given any reason to further postpone the exercise, which was last done in 2011.

Mr. Shah did not mention when the next census will be conducted, but said that registration of births and deaths helps in making development plans in the period between the two censuses.

Mr. Shah said, “The government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is going to make such arrangements that as soon as a person turns 18, the Election Commission [EC] will intimate him and make his voter card. In case of someone’s death, the census registrar will send a notice to the family that they have received information about the person’s death and the family has 15 days to object, following which the EC will remove his name from the voter’s list.”

The Union Minister also launched an upgraded sample registration system (SRS) mobile application system.

The SRS is a large-scale demographic survey conducted every year by the Registrar-General of India (RGI) office to estimate the birth rate, death rate and other fertility and mortality indicators.