Mumbai : Though the census data has revealed that the share of Muslims in the Indian population has increased from 13.4 per cent to 14.2 per cent, while Hindus’ population had fallen very slightly, demographic experts have a different take on the sensitive issue. In fact, they say that Muslims are now trying to limit their families and also facing increasing problems of fertility. On the whole, they feel that it is part of the saffron agenda to politicise such issues for vested interests.
Says Qudsiya Contractor, assistant professor, Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences: “The current controversy is a rendition of a longstanding saffron agenda that puts the majority status of Hindus under threat from an ever increasing Muslim population. Unfortunately, much of this controversy draws on popular beliefs and knowledge rather than on scientific facts.”
Dr DA Nagdeve, professor and head of the Fertility Studies Department, International Institute for Population Sciences, says, “The slight increase in Muslim population is giving fodder to nationalist propaganda that Hindu supremacy may be endangered. The sharpest increase in the Muslim population of Assam and West Bengal is due to the illegal migration from Bangladesh.”
And Nitin Lata Waman, demographer, policy researcher and doctoral fellow at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, said, “In fact, since the ’80s, the Muslim population has been decreasing at a much higher rate than Hindus. The 2011 census witnessed a 4.92 per cent decrease in total Muslim fertility rates while it was just 3.16 among Hindus. In absolute numbers, the Hindu population has increased by 13.87 crore, while Muslim population has increased by just 3.4 crore.”
Qudsiya added, “Most debates fail to draw attention to the fact that Muslims have in fact shown a 50 per cent higher decline in the growth rate as compared to Hindus since 1981. Muslim women are choosing to make smaller families, an attribute that will considerably impact the future growth rate.”
The total fertility rate (TFR) is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime.
