The Census of India 2001 is out - and with some alarming findings and even more startling ensuing 'noise' in the media. 

Things that bother me :

• The overall female-male ratio for the country stands at 946 for rural India and a mere 900 for urban India. This is really alarming.  Read more at "Sex and the village - cities no good"

• Religion again divides debate on census results - rather than providing a roadmap for a way forward which treats us all as INDIANS, this 'historical" census which is India's first religion-based census, has only paved the way for more divide between the majority Hindus and minority communities, with inflammatory remarks flying all around the place.  Read this rant - it does reflect my feelings ... 'call me an atheist'. And here's another good article that highlights some of the noise made by our political parties on the findings by religion - 'left hypocrisy, right hysteria'. 

Instead of focussing on the alarming distortion in sex ratios, much debate is around whether Muslims are going to outnumber Hindus - this is so ridiculous really.

• And on a more personal note - Parsis, a community i belong to by accident of birth, are on the brink of extinction - the 2001 Census reveals that Parsi community in India, collectively, stands at 69,601 heads (33949 males and 35652 females) ó down from 76,382 in 1991. Here's an analysis of whats happening with this community - 'Parsis in India are on the brink of extinction'. 

An extract :

"Sooni Taraporevala, scriptwriter, photographer, writes in her book Zoroastrians of India: Parsis that, ìBy the year 2020, India will have achieved the dubious distinction of being the most populated country on earth with 1,200 million people. At that point, Parsis who will number 23,000 or 0.0002 per cent of the population, will cease to be termed a community and will be labelled a ëtribeí, as is any ethnic group below the 30,000 count. Demographically, we are a dying community ó  our deaths outweigh our births.î

It is sad - and i do feel the fundamentalist community leaders are to blame. Take the case of my family - we are three daughters - all married outside the community - and hence technically ex-communicated from it.  Our children cannot be Parsis either, even if we so wished.

4:09:07 PM    comment []  trackback []

High on my 'to-do' list this week - must blog !

3:26:41 PM    comment []  trackback []