Rajiv Malik, HPI Correspondent
NEW DELHI, September 7, 2004: “In terms of growth of different religious communities, Hindus showed a decline over the previous decade, their population growing by 20.3% during 1991 and 2001 as compared to 25.1% during 1981-91. The Muslim population on the other hand, grew by 36.0% during 1991-2001, compared to 34.5% during 1981-91.” These statistics were revealed in a report entitled “2001 Census Data On Religion” released at a crowded press conference held in New Delhi’s prestigious Vigyan Bhawan Annexe on the afternoon of September 6th, 2004. The report containing data on religion as collected during the 2001 Census for the country as a whole and for each state and union territory by districts was released by Census Commissioner J. K. Banthia who presented a copy to Chairman of Minorities Commission Shri Tarlochan Singh. Noted social scientist and demographer Prof. Ashish Bose was also present at the event.
The report has create a political controversy in India over this high Muslim growth rate, so much so that it has been withdrawn temporarily. In the next few days additional stories will appear in HPI on the issue.
Following are some of the excerpts from the report-
Out of the total population of 102.8 crore (or 1.028 billion) in the country as at the 2001 Census, the Hindus were 82.7 crore (or 827 million) in number and constituted 80.5% of the population of the country. The Muslim population stood at 13.8 crore (or 138 million) comprising of 13.4% of the population. The next in size are the Christians (2.4 crore or 24 million), followed by Sikhs (1.9 crore or 19 million), Buddhists (79 lakh or 7.9 million), Jains (42 lakh or 4.2 million) and those following “Other” religions and persuasions including the tribal religions, etc. (66 lakh or 6.6 million).
Among Buddhists also there has been a sizeable decline in the growth rate from 35.3% during 1981-91 to only 24.5% during 1991-2001. Also though there is slight increase in the growth rate of the Christians (from 21.5% to 22.6%), there is noticeable decline of Sikh growth rate from 24.3% in 1981-91 to only 18.2% during 1991-2001. Most prominent in the 2001 Census data released is the growth rate of Jains (26.0%) during 1991-2001 as compared to their growth of only 4.6% during the previous decade 1981-91.
As regards the disparity of the absolute and relative number of male and female population in the society, expressed in terms of sex ratio or number of females per thousand males, the Hindus (931) were slightly below the national average of 933, whereas Muslims returned 936. The sex ratio among the Christian population grew from 994 in 1991 to 1009 in 2001. Among Sikhs, as was also noted earlier while releasing data on total population in Punjab, the sex ratio was the lowest (893). For the Buddhists and the Jains the sex ratio remained almost the same at 953 and 950.
Literacy rate for all the religious groups, as revealed again for the first time in 2001 Census, were very encouraging, shattering many myths in circulation earlier when such a dataset was not available for the country as a whole. The literacy rate among Hindus (65.1%) was slightly better than the national average (64.8%) for all religious groups combined. Among Muslims the literacy rate is 59.1%, below the national average. The highest literacy rate is recorded among the Jains (94.1%), followed by Christians (80.3%), Buddhists (72.7%) and Sikhs (69.4%).
Against the existing popular perceptions, the female literacy rate among different religious groups does not show wide variation. Among the Muslims, for instance, the literacy rate among the females was returned as 50.1%, below the national average of 53.7%. Slightly better is the female literacy rate among the Hindus (53.2%), again below the national average. The highest literacy rate among the females was recorded among the Jains (90.6%), like their male counterparts. Female literacy rate among Christians was 76.2%, followed by Sikhs (63.1%) and Buddhists (61.7%).
For more details please visit the Census Commissioner, India’s website here.