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Tuesday, Sep 07, 2004

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Decline in growth rate of Hindus

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 6. Hindus have registered a 1.5 percentage point decline in population since the last census in 1991 to constitute 80.5 per cent of the population in 2001 while Muslims logged an increase of 1.3 percentage points in the last decade to stand at 13.4 per cent of India's teeming millions.

The rate of growth of the Hindu population in the last decade has been the lowest since the 1961 census, while that of the Muslim population the highest over the same period. The rate of growth of Christians remained static at 2.3 per cent of the population as did Sikhs (1.9), Buddhists (0.8) and Jains (0.4).

These statistics emerged in the 2001 census and have been put together in the `First Report on Religion Data' released here today by the Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India, J. K. Banthia, in the presence of demographers and the Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, Tarlochan Singh, with a word of caution that people should not "jump to conclusions.''

In terms of growth of different religious communities, Hindus showed a decline over the previous decade with the population growing by 20.3 per cent between 1991 and 2001 compared to 25.1 per cent in the preceding decade. The Muslim population grew by 36 per cent in 1991-2001 compared to 34.5 per cent in 1981-91, and that of Jains registered a giant leap in growth rate from 4.6 per cent to 26 per cent. Though the percentage of Christians has not gone up, the community has shown a "slight increase'' in growth rate from 21.5 per cent to 22.6 per cent.

Parsis on decline

According to Mr. Banthia, there is a noticeable decline in the growth rate of the Sikhs from 24.3 per cent in 1981-91 to 18.2 per cent in 1991-2001. While the Buddhists have also shown a decline in growth rate, alarm bells have been sounded for the Parsis; so much so the study dwells in considerable detail on the community. India, as per Census 2001, has only 69,601 Parsis as against 76,382 in 1991.

The sex ratio study of various religions further certified the projections of the general census with Sikhs registering the most adverse sex ratio at 893 females per 1,000 males. That of Hindus was marginally below the national average of 933 at 931 while Muslims recorded a better sex ratio at 936. Christians topped the list with a sex ratio of 1,009 followed by 953 among Buddhists and 950 among Jains.

While 15.9 per cent of the country's population across the board is in the 0-6 age-group, Muslims and `others' — which cover all those who are not registered among the six religions cited in the Census — recorded higher percentages at 18.7 and 18 per cent respectively. Indicative of fertility rate, the lowest was registered by Jains (10.6). Of the remaining four, Hindus registered the highest fertility rate of 15.6 per cent, Buddhists 14.4 per cent, Christians 13.5 per cent and Sikhs 12.8 per cent.

As against the national average of 927 female children per 1,000 male children, the sex ratio in the 0-6 age group is the most adverse again among the Sikhs (786), followed by Jains (870), Hindus and Muslims (925), Buddhists (942) and Christians (964).

Female literacy rate

What Mr. Banthia found curious is the adverse sex ratio in this category among Jains given the female literacy rate within the community that stands at 90.6 per cent. The popular perception is that sex ratio is favourable among communities with a high female literacy rate, but Jains have shown a contrary trend. While the female literacy rate among different religious groups does not show wide variation as is generally assumed, both Muslims and Hindus are below the national average of 53.7 per cent at 50.1 per cent and 53.2 per cent. Female literacy among Christians is 76.2 per cent while that among Sikhs is 63.1 per cent and 61.7 per cent among Buddhists.

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