After Sikhs, Jains contest census figures

New Delhi, Sep 16 (UNI) Now the Jains have contested
their number in the first-ever religion-based census
report.

According to Digamber Jain Mahasabha, the Jain
population in the country should be around 12.5-15
million and not 4.2 million as recorded in the First
Report on Religion: Census of India 2001.

Pointing to the state-wise figures, the Mahasabha says
the Jain population in Delhi has been recorded at
155,122, though it should not be less than 400,000.

Similarly, Lalitpur and Jhansi alone account for more
than 200,000 Jains which the census report records as
the entire Jain population of Uttar Pradesh.

''There are sizeable number of Jains in Meerut,
Sardhana, Moradabad, Rampur, Lucknow, Bijnore,
Sharanpur and Baraut. Hence their population in UP
should be around one million,'' Mahasabha President
Nirmal Kumar Jain Sethi said in a statement here
today.

''In West Bengal, the Jain population is double the
census figure. Same is true for Madhya Pradesh,
Gujarat and Karnataka,'' he claimed.

He, however, expressed great satisfaction over the
high literacy rate among the Jains-- 90.6 per cent for
female and 94.1 per cent for the entire population.

Earlier, the Sikhs had contested their number in the
census report, saying their polulation in the capital
was around 130,000 and not 555,000 as recorded.