RELIGION AND INDIA’S GROWING POPULATION: EVIDENCE FROM SOME SELECTED STATES OF INDIA

We demographers rarely consider religious beliefs, rituals and traditional practices as an important intermediate fertility variable of population change. Recent data from the Census of India, however, shows that religion is a factor behind growing population rates in India, especially within the Muslim community. The census identified that from 1981-91 to 1991-2001, the Muslim population grew from 12 per cent to 13 per cent of the country's total, with annual growth rate rising from 34.5 per cent to 36 per cent, whilst the Hindu population declined from 81.24 per cent to 80.58 per cent of the total - with the annual growth dropping from 25.1 per cent to 20.3 per cent. So, this study attempts to see how religion is a factor determining population change in India, arguing that religion to be a direct determinant of fertility rates. For this study, data has been taken from the Census of India and National Family Heath Survey-I&II. Key-word: Religion, fertility, contraceptive use, population growth and India