Hyderabad: Expressing deep concern over misreporting by the media on the growth of Muslim and Hindu populations in India, the Population Foundation of India (PFA) said that ‘selective portrayal’ of data to highlight the growth of Muslim population in India is both misleading and baseless.
The PFA statement on the media reports pertain to a study by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EACPM) titled ‘Share of religious Minorities: A Cross-Country Analysis’. It stated that the EACPM report cannot be used to “incite fear or discrimination against any community”.
Media reports citing the same – that the Hindu population has come down in India between 1951 and 2011 by 8% while that of Muslims has risen by 43% – prompted the PFA to issue a statement.
What the report said
The share of the Hindu population decreased by 7.82 per cent between 1950 and 2015 in India, while that of Muslims increased by 43.15 per cent, suggesting that there is a conducive environment in the country to foster diversity, said a recent working paper by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM).
“… The share of the majority Hindu population decreased by 7.82 per cent between 1950 and 2015 (from 84.68 per cent to 78.06 per cent). The share of Muslim population in 1950 was 9.84 per cent and increased to 14.09 per cent in 2015 — a 43.15 per cent increase in their share,” said the paper prepared by a team led by Shamika Ravi, member, EAC-PM.
The paper noted that a decrease in the share of the majority population and a consequent increase in the share of minorities suggests that the net result of all policy actions, political decisions and societal processes is to provide a conducive environment for increasing diversity in society.
The report pointed out that in keeping with the global trends of declining majority, India too has witnessed a reduction in the share of the majority religious denomination by 7.82 per cent.
“This is particularly remarkable given the wider context within the South Asian neighborhood where the share of the majority religious denomination has increased and minority populations have shrunk alarmingly across countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Afghanistan,” the paper said.
However, it may be noted that Sharmila Ravi has courted controversy in the past. In 2020, The Indian Express withdrew an article published on May 25 authored by her on the health and economic crisis in India. The publication had said that Ravi’s article was found to have “..four sections, one to three sentences each, that consisted of substantial of verbatim quotation, unacknowledged, from Romer’s piece”.
It was referring to American economic Paul Romer. She was essentially called out for plagiarism by people on social media. The issue ended with Shamika Ravi’s apology.
Decadal decline in Muslims population of India: PFA
Aside from its concerns of the EACPM report, the Population Foundation of India (PFA) also said that Census data in India shows a decadal decline in the Muslim population growth rate. In a statement, the PFA said that it has decreased from 32.8% in 1981-91 to 24.2% in 2001-11. “The census data is available from 1951 to 2011 and is quite similar to the data in this study, indicating that these numbers are not new.
The PFA also said that successful family planning programmes in Muslim-majority countries like Bangladesh and Indonesia have resulted in lower birth rates compared to India as well. “These countries have achieved this through higher levels of female education, greater employment opportunities and better access to contraceptive choices.”
