Daily News Analysis ‘Sample Registration System (SRS) 2024 and Demographic Transition ’ : 23 May

Why in News:

• The latest statistical bulletin from the Sample Registration System highlights a profound demographic transition in India, marked by a declining national birth rate and major reductions in the Infant Mortality Rate.

Sample Registration System (SRS) Core Facts:

• Institutional Framework: The Sample Registration System (SRS) is a large-scale demographic survey conducted by the Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India (ORGI) under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• Unique Dual-Record System: It operates as a continuous panel survey using a dual-recording structure; it combines ongoing daily tracking of vital events by local part-time enumerators with an independent retrospective survey every six months by full-time supervisors.
• Historical Genesis: Initiated as a pilot scheme in 1964–1965 and launched as a full-scale continuous system in 1969–1970 to provide reliable annual estimates of vital statistics, compensating for historical deficiencies in the Civil Registration System (CRS).
• Decadal National Trajectory: Over the 2014–2024 tracking decade, India’s Crude Birth Rate (CBR) fell significantly from 21.0 to 18.3 live births per 1,000 population, while the Crude Death Rate (CDR) dropped marginally from 6.7 to 6.4 deaths per 1,000 people.
• Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) Breakthrough: The national IMR decreased substantially from 39 to 24 deaths per 1,000 live births, driven by centered public health interventions launched by the Centre and States.
• Rural-Urban Cleavage: Severe geographic gaps persist as the national average is pulled down by rural statistics; the rural IMR stands at a high of 27 compared to a low of 17 in urban pockets, moving rural sectors furthest from the national target of single-digit infant mortality.
• Natural Growth Rate (NGR): Measures the absolute pace at which a population expands or contracts based purely on the difference between births and deaths, excluding migration parameters, expressed as a net percentage.
• Sub-National Performance Leaders: Kerala leads the demographic transition among larger states with the lowest national NGR of 3.9% and a single-digit IMR of 8, followed closely by Tamil Nadu (4.8% NGR; 11 IMR) and Goa (4.2% NGR; 11 IMR).