2011 Religious and Caste Census: Main Findings

2011 Religious and Caste Census: Main Findings

Question: The role of religion and caste continue to be important in Indian society. Discuss in the context of the findings of the 2011 Religious and Caste Census.

This is the first religious and caste census since 2004

Findings pertaining to religion:

- Share of Hindus in the population has gone below 80% for the first time

- Population in the latest census is pegged at 121 crores

- Hindus constitute 79.8% of the population at 96.63 crore

- Muslims with 17 crore population make 14.2% of the total population

- Christians are the third largest community with 2.3% of the population around 2.78 crore persons

- Sikhs are next at 2.08 crores followed by Buddhists at 84 lakhs and Jains at 45 lakhs

- Proportion of Hindus in the population has fallen by 0.7% while that of Sikhs has lowered by0.2% and Buddhists by 0.1%

- While the proportion of Muslims has risen by 0.8%, there has been no significant change in proportion of Christians and Jains

- Census reveals rate of growth of Muslims is the highest at 24.6% while Hindus have a growth rate of 16.8% and Christians are next at 15.5%

- Growth rate of Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs was below 10%

- Though the all India decadal growth was less than 29.3% between 1991 and 2001 for the Muslim community, their state wise decadal growth rate was more than that of Hindus in India from 2001-2011

- The number of persons who did not state their religion rose by 294% between 2001 and 2011

- 2001-2011 decadal growth for total population stood at 17.7%

- Christians grew by 15.5%, Sikhs by 8.4%, Jains by 5.4% and Buddhists by 6.1%

- Those stating other religious persuasions rose by 19.6% in the decade preceding 2011

State Wise Figures

Notable rise in Hindu population in the following states: UP, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, MP, Puducherry

NCT

- States with a Hindu decadal growth less than national average are as follows: Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, WB, Assam, AP, HP, Odisha, Chattisgarh, TN, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Haryana

Rise of Muslim population in states higher than the national average included the following:

Mizoram, Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Nagaland, Uttarakhand, NCT/Delhi, Rajasthan, Assam, Bihar and Gujarat

Rise of Christian population was noted in the following states:

Bihar and Arunachal Pradesh

Sikhs recorded higher decadal growth rate in the following states:

Odisha, Gujarat, AP, Kerala and TN

Findings Relating to Caste and Community

- Around 4.6% of rural households pay income tax

Total households - rural plus urban stand at 24.39 crore

- PSU employed households constitute 1.11% of the total

- Around 11% of rural households had refrigerators and only 20.69% had an automobile or fishing boat

- While 94% of rural households owned a house, around 54% have 1 to 2 room dwellings

- Landless owners were 56% of the rural population while only 5% earned salaries from the government and those employed in rural sectors were even less (3.57%)

- 70% of SC and 50% of STs in rural areas were landless owners

Facts and Stats

- This is the first caste census in Independent India.

- The last religion and caste census was carried out in 1932.