New Delhi: The first -ever census report on religion today (Sep 6, 2004) showed a "high growth" of Muslims at 36 per cent in sharp contrast to the "decline" in the Hindu population to 20.3 per cent in the country.

In terms of growth of different religious communities, Hindus showed a decline over the previous decade, their population growing by 20.3 per cent during 1991 and 2001 as compared to 25.1 per cent during 1981-91.

On the other hand, the Muslim population grew by 1.5 per cent to 36 per cent during 1991-2001, compared to 34.5 per cent during 1981-91, according to "The First Report on Religion" in New Delhi.

The report, prepared by office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, was released by Census Commissioner J K Banthia who presented a copy to Chairman of Minorities Commission Tarlochan Singh.

Out of the total population of 102.8 crore in the country as at the 2001 Census, the Hindus were 82.7 crore in number and constituted 80.5 per cent of the total population while the Muslims stood at 13.8 crore comprising 13.4 per cent of the population, the report said.

Banthia described the increase in Muslim population as "high growth" for which he said there were several reasons.

"Low literacy rate and low participation in work among the Muslim females were some of the reasons for the high growth," Banthia told reporters after releasing the report.

He said among Buddhists also there has been a "sizeable decline" in the growth rate from 35.3 per cent during 1981-91 to only 24.5 per cent during 1991-2001.

Though there was a slight increase in the growth rate of the Christians from 21.5 per cent to 22.6 per cent, there was "noticeable decline" of Sikh growth rate from 24.3 per cent in 1981-91 to only 18.2 per cent during 1991-2001.

Most prominent in the 2001 Census data released was the growth rate of Jains (26 per cent) during 1991-2001 as compared to their growth of only 4.6 per cent during the previous decade 1981-91, the report said.

Describing as "disturbing trend" the lowest sex ratio among the Sikhs, Banthia said as was noted earlier while releasing data on total population in Punjab, the sex ratio was the lowest, 893 against per thousand males, and added that female foeticide was very prevalent in Punjab.

Going through the data of the report, Singh said the Minorities Commission will create a cell of experts with the help of Census Commissioner to examine the report and will convene a meeting of all the religious leaders to look into the issues of their respective communities and take steps to address them.