India witnessed 82 lakh deaths in 2020, 1.48 lakh due to Covid-19: Registrar General

As many as 81.2 lakh people died in the country in the year 2020, an increase of 6.2 per cent than 2019 when the country had registered 76.4 lakh deaths, according to data prepared by the Registrar General of India (RGI).

In 2020, when COVID-19 was first reported in the country, 1.48 lakh people lost their lives due to the pandemic, which is substantially higher than 2021 when 3.32 lakh people died due to the disease.

According to Union health ministry data, provided on Tuesday morning, 5,23,889 people have lost their lives to the virus in the country since early 2020.

In case of registered deaths, the number of registered events has gone up from 76.4 lakhs in 2019 to 81.2 lakhs in 2020, an increase of 6.2 per cent, the RGI’s report ‘Vital Statistics of India based on the Civil Registration System’ for 2020 said.

Some states and union territories (UTs) namely Maharashtra, Bihar, Gujarat, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam, and Haryana have contributed significantly in the increased number of deaths registered from 2019 to 2020.

Officials said many of the deaths had occurred in these states due to COVID-19.

Registered births, the data said, decreased from 2.48 crore in 2019 to 2.42 crore in 2020, a drop of about 2.4 per cent.

In the case of registered births, there has been a fall in 2020 in almost all states and UTs except Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh compared to 2019.

Eleven States and UTs namely Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Delhi, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala and West Bengal have contributed significantly to the decrease in registered births in 2020 over 2019.

As many as 11 states and UTs have achieved more than 90 per cent registration of death within the prescribed time limit of 21 days.

Seven states and UTs are in the category of more than 80 to less than or equal to 90 per cent, seven states are in the category of more than 50 to less than or equal to 80 per cent, and the remaining eight states are under the category of less than or equal to 50 per cent in death registration within the prescribed time limit of 21 days.

A total of 15 states and UTs have achieved more than 90 per cent registration of births within the prescribed time limit of 21 days.

Further, two states and UTs are in the category of more than 80 to less than or equal to 90 per cent, nine states are in the category of more than 50 to less than or equal to 80 per cent and, the remaining seven states are under the category of less than or equal to 50 per cent in completing the birth registration within the time limit of 21 days.