Census and Muslim Growth
Nita Shirali
Published in Pulse, September 2004
Monthly e-magazine for Vikas Adhyayan Kendra
The Government seems to have messed up on the census figures, which show the growth rate of Muslims in our country.
For the first time, census data on the basis of religion was released and this shows the growth rate of Muslims as the highest, which is 36% during 1991-2001. In the earlier decade the growth rate had been 32.9 %. The growth rate of the Hindu population declined to 20.3% during this period from 25.1% during 1981-91.
Predictably, the BJP and the RSS have expressed alarm saying that this data supported their claim that the Hindus in India were “under threat� from a rising Muslim population, and attributed the growth rate to infiltration and the role of Muslim leaders. The BJP President even went on record saying this was “cause for grave concern for those who think of India’s unity and integrity.� The 2001 Census was, it may be noted, carried out entirely during the BJP regime.
A subsequent newspaper report published the very next day, however, showed that the 1991 census figures did not include Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim majority state, while in the 2001 figures the state was included. This has altogether altered the picture. If one excludes the Muslims of Kashmir from the 2001 figures, the growth rate of the Muslim population is 29.3%, which is much lower than the growth figure of the earlier decade. Two days later the Census has come out with new figures which show the Muslim growth rate falling and not rising as shown earlier. These figures do not include Jammu and Kashmir (which was not included in the 1991 census) and Assam (which was not included in the 1981 census). The new figures say the Muslim growth rate is 29.3%, which is 3.6% lower than the earlier growth rate of 32.9% in 1991.
In this context it may be remembered that at a BJP seminar on Indic religions held a couple of years back, their leaders had stressed on the same point, which was the increase of the Muslim population in the border districts. This raises certain questions in our mind. Was this a genuine mistake on the part of the Government? Was the census data leaked to the BJP leaders? Or was it fudged to suit the BJP interest?
What is actually disturbing and certainly cause for concern in the census report is the lower sex ratio in the 0-6 age group, especially in the northern states among the Sikhs (786) and Jains (870), which shows a strong bias against the girl child. Incidentally, the sex ratio in the 0-6 age group among the Muslims is not so low at 950. Some other data worth mentioning is that about one third of Muslims in India are engaged in economic activity as against 40% of Hindus. The work participation rate or percentage of workers to the total population for all religions is 39.1. About 40.5% of Buddhists are part of the work force. Christians also have a higher than national average of 39.7%.
It is unfortunate that census reports are politicised for the wrong reasons and in the process the issues that actually matter for a poor country like India are never taken up.