Mangaluru : A total of 456 birth and death registrar and sub-registrar offices in the district have been facilitated with ‘e-janma’ portal, Dr Uday Shetty, district statistical officer, has said.

The move has been taken to introduce electronic registration of births and deaths, the official added.

He was speaking during the inauguration of a two-day workshop on birth and death registration rules and the management of ‘e-janma’ software. The workshop was organised by the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat and the District Statistics Department at the Nethravathi auditorium of the Zilla Panchayat in Mangaluru on Wednesday.

Dr Shetty said that the project of ‘e-janma’ was implemented by the government department on a pilot basis in rural areas between April 1, 2015 and June 6, 2017 to ensure faster and accurate registration of births and deaths in such areas.

“As many as 432 birth and death registrar and sub-registrar offices in the rural areas are now facilitated with ‘e-janma’, while in the urban areas, the number is 24 offices. This includes 68 government hospitals in the rural areas and 15 government hospitals in the urban areas. The rest of the registration units are at the Nada Kacheris, Mangaluru City Corporation, the city municipal councils and the town municipal councils, along with the town panchayats,” he listed out.

Speaking further, Dr Shetty said, “These apart, private hospitals too have been facilitated with the software. The registration could only be done at private hospitals. The certification of births and deaths has to be carried out by the birth and death registrars and sub-registrars in their respective jurisdictions.”

The statistics recorded through ‘e-janma’ will be utilised for tracking the district-wise birth rate, the sex ratio and also the progress of vaccination programmes, said the officer. He added that the next target was to bring the rate of late registration to zero, by ensuring the registration process happens faster.

Inaugurating the programme, Dr R Selvamani, the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat chief executive officer, said that the errors taking place during manual registration will hopefully be avoided with ‘e-janma’ software.

Noting that many people file litigations in court, owing to the errors committed during birth and death registrations, the officer said that such litigation will be prevented with the new system.

Rohini K, senior assistant director of the Information and Public Relations Department, and Maruthi Prasad, assistant statistical officer, were present during the inauguration.