NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Minorities last week came out with an in-depth analysis of the religion-based data in the Census 2001 report, saying though the growth rate of the Muslim community is more than other communities as per the latest census, it has actually “declined” over the years.

An expert committee of demographers set up by the NCM has found that the growth rate of the Muslim community from 1991 to 2001 across India was 29.5 per cent as against 21.5 per cent for all communities. “However, this was lower than the growth rate during 1981-91 (32.9 per cent), 1971-81 (30.7 per cent) and 1961-71 (30.8 per cent),” the head of the committee, Mr Ashish Bose of the Society for Applied Research in Humanities, told reporters here.

After analyzing the religion-based data in the Census 2001 report, Mr Bose said the above-average growth rate of the Muslim community was primarily due to higher-than-average fertility and lower mortality. “The growth rate of the Muslim population may still be high, but it is nothing to be alarmed about and will stabilise over the years as this is a transitional phase,” he said.

While the total fertility rate (the number of children per woman) was 3.6 among Muslims, it was 2.8 for Hindus, 2.4 for Christians and 2.3 for Sikhs. —By arrangement with AsianAge/ Delhi