The Hindus' rate of growth is falling

Muslim population grows 36% in 1990s, Jammu & Kashmir census included

The growth rate of the population of Hindus in India slowed to 20.3 per cent during the 1990s according to Census 2001 against a 25.1 per cent rise in the 1980s.

The growth in Muslim population, however, accelerated from 34.5 per cent in the 1980s to 36 per cent in the 1990s, the highest among the major religious groups.

"The report is not meant for political slogans. It is meant for minority leaders because it shows them where minorities are lacking," said S Tarlochan Singh, Chairman, National Commission for Minorities.

In 2001, the Hindu population was 828 million, accounting for 80.5 per cent of the total population. The 138 million Muslims accounted for 13.4 per cent, while there were 24 million Christians comprising 2.3 per cent of the total population.

Sikhs, at 19 million, accounted for 1.9 per cent of the population. The overall growth rate among the 'other religion and persuasions' category was the highest at 103.1 per cent.

The growth rate for Sikhs and Buddhists, however, fell sharply over the 1981-2001 period. The decadal growth rate for Sikhs has gone down from 24.3 per cent in the 1980s to 18.2 per cent in the 1990s.

The growth reported by Buddhists has gone down from 35.3 per cent to 24.5 per cent, the report shows.

The increase in the Muslim population is however over-stated to an extent, because the previous census carried out in 1991, did not enumerate the community's population in Jammu and Kashmir.

Also, the drop in the Hindu population can be partially accounted for by the fact that more people have registered themselves as Jains, rather than Hindus in the 2001 census.

The report, which for the first time has collected data on the educational and economic activity of the religious groups, showed that Jains were the most socio-economically developed religious group in the country, closely followed by Christians and Sikhs, Census Commissioner, JK Banthia said, while releasing the data.

Literacy rates for Jains is the highest at 94.1 per cent, followed by Christians at 80.3 per cent and Buddhists at 72.7 per cent.

Hindus (65.1 per cent) and Sikhs (69.4 per cent) have reported literacy rates marginally higher than the national average of 64.8 per cent, while the average literacy rate for Muslims is 59.1 per cent. The category of 'other religions and persuasions' has reported the lowest literacy rate of 47 per cent in the census.

The child sex-ratio, or the number of girls per 1,000 boys in the 0-6 age group, is the most adverse in the case of the Sikh community (786), closely followed by Jains (870), against the norm of around 940.

Christians have the most favourable ratio of 964 girls per 1,000 boys.

The ratio in case of the Buddhist and Hindu communities is quite close to the norm.

The proportion of population in the age group of 0-6, which can be used as a proxy for fertility trends, is the highest for Muslims. At the all-India level, there are 18.7 people in the 0-6 age group among Muslims against 15.6 for Hindus and 12.8 for Sikhs, according to the 2001 census. The national average is 15.9 per cent.

The very high fertility rates for Muslims, those where the proportion of people in the 0-6 age group is more than 18 per cent, are in 261 districts spread across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Orissa and Maharashtra.

In case of Hindus, the high fertility areas are spread across 159 districts, mostly in Rajasthan, MP, UP, and Bihar. The high fertility rates among Hindus and Muslims can be attributed to the low female literacy rates, particularly in rural areas.

There was a negative relation between female literacy and fertility rates across all religious groups, indicating that investments in and creation of background environment and facilities leading to improving female literacy would prove to be beneficial in lowering fertility faster, said Census Commissioner, JK Banthia while releasing the figures.