Once again, the Muslim population has become a point of discussion. Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to Muslims in India as “those who have a large number of children”. A Data Point published on April 23 showed that the fertility rate of Muslims was 2.36 in 2019-21, much closer to the replacement level. The fertility rate is the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime. A rate of 2.1 (the ‘replacement level’) means that the population is stable.
This month, the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister concluded that while the share of Muslims in the total population increased by 43.15% between 1950 and 2015, the share of Hindus decreased by 7.82%.
Data show that the number of children one chooses to have has more to do with socio-economic parameters than religion. Government data show that educating girls and not marrying them off early, creating more awareness about family planning, and ensuring access to family planning measures help reduce fertility levels.
