Background

The genesis of the Department of Civil Registration and Census lies in the setting up of the Department of Registration in September, 1974. The mandate of this office was to register foreigners working and visit Bhutan and to create a comprehensive registry of the population in Bhutan. In the decades that followed, the Department underwent numerous changes, both in terms of functions as well as nomenclature. In 1987 it was renamed as the Department of Immigration and Census and in 1990 it was merged under the Home Secretariat and renamed the Registration Division. Thereafter, in 2004, in consideration of the importance of the mandate of the Registration Division, it was bifurcated into two separate Departments, namely the Department of Immigration and Department of Civil Registration & Census. Although names as the Department of Civil Registration and Census, currently the Department’s core functions are issuing Citizenship Identity Cards and conducting census as per the provisions contained in the Citizenship Acts and Census Handbook of 1993.

The Department was initially established as the Foreigners Registration Office in September 1974 with the mandate of registration functions. The genesis of the Department is presented as below: -The Department was initially established as the Foreigners Registration Office in September 1974 with the mandate of registration functions. The genesis of the Department is presented as below: –