Press Information Bureau- Govenment of India 17.42 IST
Census 2001data on religion released
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 the Census Commissioner of India Mr. J. K. Banthia here
today. Unlike the previous censuses, for the first time in
Independent India, data on population (0-6 years), number of
literates, category and type of workers for each major religious
groups are now available. This path breaking but very useful
statistics from the 2001 Census, can be used by all concerned
responsible for the development of the people of India to assess the
progress made by different religious groups and devise intervention
strategy and planning for their future improvements so as to lead a
better quality of life.
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).
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. 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 handsomely
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.
For the first time as per the religion data released on 2001 Census,
it is possible to know about the population in the age group 0 to 6
years among different religious communities. In terms of proportion
of children in the age group 0 to 6 years, the country average for
all communities combined stood at 15.9%, among Hindus and Muslims the
proportions were 15.6% and 18.3% respectively. Proportion of child
population (0-6) among the Buddhists was 14.4%. However, the
proportion of child population among both Sikh (12.8% and Jains
10.6%) are indication of low fertility, more so among the Jains.
The pattern noticed while releasing 2001 Census data showing number
of males per thousand females in the age group 0-6 years or sex ratio
(0-6) in case of some states is further reinforced by the data on
child sex ratio (0-6) among a few of the religious communities. While
publishing 2001 Census results, it was noticed that there was decline
in child sex ratio (0-6) for the total population as a whole in the
country (from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001), the same cannot be
substantiated for each religious group in absence of similar religion-
wise data in 1991. The child sex ratio by religious groups now show
wide variation in 2001 Census. The lowest sex ratio among child
population (0-6) is found among the Sikhs (786), followed in
increasing order among Jains (870), Hindus (925), Muslims (925),
Buddhists (942), Christians (964) and Others (976).
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%).
Another important criteria to measure progress is to find out the gap
in male and female literacy rate in a population. Known as gender gap
in literacy rate, for all religions combined for the country as per
2001 Census was 21.6 percentage point. However, by religious
communities this gap varies widely. For instance the highest gender
gap in literacy rate was recorded among followers of `Other
religions' (27.6), followed by the Hindus (23.0), Buddhists (21.4).
The gender gap in literacy rate among Muslims was 17.5 and among the
Sikhs 12.8. The gap between male and female literacy rate was lowest
among Jains (6.8).
The 2001 Census also released data on economic activity for different
religious groups. Proportion of workers to total population (work
participation rate) varied from 48.4% (among those following Other
religions and persuasions) to a very low of 31.3% (among Muslims). In
terms of type of economic activity, whereas among the Hindus, 33.1%
of the workers returned themselves as cultivators, among the Muslims
they were only 20.7%. Of the Buddhists workers 37.6% returned
themselves as agricultural labourers, not owning land. Among Hindus,
percentage of agricultural labourers was 27.6% and among Muslims
22.0%. Importantly the percentage of workers in household industries
among the Muslims was highest (8.1%), much above the national average
for all communities (4.2%). Percentage of female workers in household
industries was quite high among the Muslims (19.3%) reflecting their
traditional association with arts and crafts and such household
industries. Among Jains, the most literates among the six religious
groups, the workers were mainly returned as `Other' worker (81.7%),
that is they are employed mainly in non-agricultural sector.
This new dataset on literacy, and work status by religion, will
surely help in evaluating the condition of life and also help in
evolving more realistic plans for development to remove disparity.
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