The share of the Hindu population fell by 7.82%, while that of Christians, Muslims and Sikhs increased: PM-EAC | India News

The analysis was based on the 2017 Religious Characteristics of States Dataset to track religious composition across countries. The study focused only on countries where a majority religion made up more than 50 percent of the total population in 1950.

While the population of Hindus decreased by 7.82 percent, the share of Muslim population increased from 9.84 percent to 14.09 percent. The share of the Christian population increased from 2.24 percent to 2.36 percent, the share of the Sikh population increased from 1.24 percent to 1.85 percent and the share of the Buddhist population increased from 0.05 percent to 0.81 percent. The population of Jain and Parsi community witnessed a dip. The share of Jains fell from 0.45 percent to 0.36 percent and the share of the Parsi population fell by 85 percent from 0.03 percent to 0.0004 percent.

The report included a caveat that the analysis was agnostic to the causes behind demographic changes. However, it concluded that “the increase in the proportion of minorities suggested that the net result of policy actions, political decisions and social processes provided a favorable environment for increasing diversity in society”. The study also called news reports of atrocities against minorities in India ‘noisy’ and stated in contrast: “minorities were not only protected but also flourished in India”, especially notable in the context of the shrinking minority populations in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

Shamika Ravi, member of the PM-EAC and one of the authors of the report, said the Indian experience is similar to that of most of the world’s high-income liberal democracies such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries ), which is a large decline in the share of the majority religion. “The change in the share of minorities as a percentage of the total population serves as a reliable measure of the status of minorities in a country, which is promoted through policies that include defining minorities, which in itself is a common practice worldwide she said when The Indian Express contacted her.

Of the 35 OECD countries surveyed, 25 were from Europe, and the share of majority religious denominations has declined by 29 percent in these countries.

Population Foundation of India, a non-profit organization that works to address population issues through research and advocacy, warned that the PM-EAC report should not be misinterpreted to incite fear or discrimination against any community. Poonam Muttreja, executive director of the nonprofit, said the media should not selectively report the data to only emphasize the increase in the Muslim population, thus misrepresenting broader demographic trends. It said the total fertility rate (TFR) fell among all religious groups and the largest decline in TFR between 2005-06 and 2019-21 was observed among Muslims, a decline of 1 percentage point in their TFR. Hindus saw a decline of 0.7 percentage points.