Saturday, April 30 2005 19:48 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Months after a Census report about growth rate among Muslims stirred a political controversy, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) today (Apr 30, 2005) sought to put a lid on it saying that though the rate was more than other communities, it had declined over the years.

An expert committee of demographers set up by the NCM has found that growth rate of Muslims in border areas of Assam and West Bengal was disproportionately high, probably due to immigration from Bangladesh.

After analysing the religion-based data in the Census 2001 report, the committee said the growth rate of Muslim community from 1991 to 2001 across the country 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 (30.7per cent) and 1961-71 (30.8 per cent), head of the committee Ashish Bose of Society for Applied Research in Humanities told reporters in New Delhi.

The Census report released last September had initially showed a high growth rate of 36 per cent among Muslims, triggering an outcry from Sangh Parivar outfits.

In a damage-control exercise, the Registrar General of India had deleted the population figures of Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, where no census was carried out in 1991 and 1981, and presented "revised" growth rate of 29.3 per cent.

Bose said the above average growth rate among Muslims was primarily due to higher than average fertility and lower mortality.

"The growth rate of 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.