Adult death registration in Matlab, rural Bangladesh: completeness, correlates, and obstacles

Genus

Journal of Population Sciences

Table 1 A brief overview of death registration procedures in Bangladesh

Birth and Death Registration Act	In 2004, the Bangladesh government repealed the Birth, Death and Marriage Registration Act, 1886 and enacted the Birth and Death Registration Act, 2004.
Time requirement for death registration	45 days
Charge for death registration	Free within 45 days
Late registration fee	Less than $1 USD
Responsibility to report event for registration	Primarily parents, children, siblings, and other relatives. Any other can also report.
Information required for death registration	Name, sex, age, present and permanent address of the deceased; his/her father’s and mother’s name; husband’s or wife’s name (if married); place of death; and cause of death (according to the International Classification of Diseases [ICD]).
Documents required for death registration	Deceased national identity card; birth certificate; certificate/proof of death from health center/provider, graveyard authority, funeral facilitator, or administrator of local government; or post-mortem report; or any other document that proves the death.
Online registration platform	Yes
Enforcement of law	Limited

Note on causes of death: More than half of the deaths occur at home. Among the deaths that occur at home, the causes of deaths mostly remain unknown. Assigned causes of deaths for deaths that occur at health facilities are often questionable and are not properly aligned with ICD codes (Hazard et al., 2017)
Source: Bangladesh’s birth and death registration rule 2018 (Ministry of Local Government, 2018)