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TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 09, 2004 01:54:34 AM ] NEW DELHI: It's now official. The government is taking a "relook" at the analytical comments made in the Census report on religion, which had suggested that the growth rate of the Muslim population during 1991-2001 had grown by 1.5 percentage points, whereas it has actually declined. Confirming this, Deputy Registrar General R G Mitra said, "There is some problem raised on analytical remarks vis-a-vis Muslim growth rate. So the commission has decided to have a relook at the analysis part." The clarification comes in the wake of a report in The Times Of India on Wednesday which pointed out that 36% growth estimated for the Muslim population over 1991-2001 was based on the faulty procedure of comparing all-India 2001 figures with the 1991 figures which excluded J&K. It also comes after the data released on Monday kicked up a political storm with statements from BJP leaders expressing "concern" over demographic changes and urging "uniform" growth for all communities. Mitra was quoted as saying that the Census commission was exploring ways to address issues raised over the growth rate of Muslims. He also said there would be a newly-published set of reports, to be made available from Thursday, that might include "qualifying" statements along with analytical remarks. He added "There is no question of withdrawal of any data." TOI had not queried the veracity of the data; it had only raised questions over their interpretation and how an important statistic ??” non-inclusion of J&K in the 1991 census ??” could be glossed over while making public the figures. It is true that the Muslim growth rate will come down to 29.3 per cent if J&K is excluded and the Hindu growth rate will decline to 19.9 per cent, he said. Strangely, however, his organisations press release made no mention of this crucial information. The 32.8 per cent figure for growth in Muslim population in 1981-91 is based on excluding both Assam and J&K from the figures for 1981 and 1991. This is necessary since the 1981 census excluded Assam and the 1991 census excluded J&K. Hence the two states needed to be kept out to make the figures comparable. Incidentally, the corresponding figure for the Hindu growth rate between 1981 and 1991 was 22.8%. That suggests a completely different picture from what data portrayed. Not only has Muslim population growth slowed down by 3.5 per cent, it has fallen faster than the Hindu population growth rate which lost 2.9 per cent in the same time. The census numbers also convey the impression that there has been a sudden explosion in the Jain population over the last decade. It suggests that Jains have grown 26 per cent over the last decade against a very meagre increase of 4.6 per cent between 1981 and 1991. Again, this is almost certainly not a refection of the real situation on the ground. The same data, for instance, shows that the 0 to 6 age group among Jains is barely 10.6 per cent of the total Jain population. |
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