Muslim Population Can’t Cross 18% by 2100, Says Former CEC

Culling out data from the National Family Health Surveys and Census of India during his speech at Manthan in Hyderabad on Wednesday, he said that Hindus and Muslims are in fact going shoulder-to-shoulder in population growth and lack of family planning.

Going by the present gap between the Hindu and Muslim populations, he said the myth that Muslims might overtake Hindus in the next 10 years does not hold true.

“Yes, Muslims have the lowest levels of family planning (FP) — at 45.3 per cent. Their total fertility rate (TFR) is 2.61, which is the highest. But the Hindus are also not far behind, with second lowest family planning at 54.4 per cent, and second highest TFR of 2.13. However, it is completely missed when the right wing makes allegations,” the former CEC explained.

“While Muslim birth rates are higher, family planning efforts are improving. Muslims will never be able to surpass Hindus in population. The demographic ratio of India shows an increase in Muslims from 9.8 per cent in 1951 to 14.2 per cent in 2011, but this is an increase of 4.4 per cent in 60 years. At this rate, they will only reach 18 per cent by the year 2100, let alone the next 10 years!" he said.

Sasikanth Senthil, an IAS-turned-politician representing the Thiruvallur Lok Sabha constituency in the Lok Sabha, called for political reforms, brought about by ground-level interventions in helping people think critically on social issues such as patriarchy and caste system. He said that authoritarianism in India is not limited to Hindu-Muslim issues. It also involves caste hierarchies. It is essential to break the moulds of these hierarchies.

Speaking on 'Constitution @ 75: looking back, looking forward', Arvind Datar, a senior advocate at the Supreme Court, pointed out that India was lucky to have a Constitution that has lasted 75 years because a study showed that the average life of a Constitution to be just 17 years.

He, however, said that certain provisions of the Constitution have now come under threat. "Federalism is something that has come under strain. There are two parts of federalism. One is fiscal and the other is the centre-state relations.”

At the more star-studded session in the afternoon, film producer and director Kiran Rao, interviewed by her aunt Vidya Rao, brought a different lens to the conversation with her film 'Laapata Ladies', exploring women’s identity and agency.

“Whether a woman wears a veil or not should be her choice,” Rao said, adding, “It is about women having the agency to make a choice.”

She also spoke about how humour can be a powerful tool to break down barriers, especially noting that humour and the light-handed tackling of serious issues in Laapata Ladies is what made it such a great movie. “Humour brings people together, softening the boundaries between us and the other,” she reflected.

Yet, Rao’s conversation was not just about women as she noted that one doesn’t have to be a woman to understand women. She said, “There is a need to represent men’s issues sensitively too. We need to work across gender divides and raise empathetic voices on both sides.”