Decline in the number of babies being born in Muslim and Christian families

  BENGALURU: According to the the data that has been released recently on births, has shown that the number of babies being born in the Muslim and Christian families in Karnataka has dropped for the second straight year in 2017. As for the number of Hindu children has showed a slight upward trend.

In the year 2017, 10.9 lakh births were registered in Karnataka with 9.3 lakh births in Hindu, 1.6 lakh in Muslim and 6,431 in Christian families. There were 11 lakh births in 2016—9.3 lakh in Hindu, 1.7 lakh in Muslim and 7,389 in Christian families.

This is the second consecutive year that births in Muslim and Christian families have declined, while those in Hindu families went up. The declining trend in Muslim and Christian babies was despite increase in the total number of births in 2016. These birth registrations are compiled by the Registrar General of India which is based on the information submitted by the Karnataka government.

Prof CM Lakshmana, the head of the Population Research Centre at the Institute for Social and Economic Change (Isec), has said that: “Changing trends in education levels, acceptance and family planning would have played a key role. But it’s difficult to attribute any particular reason for the dip in births in Muslim and Christian families without an in-depth study.”

Prof KNM Raju, a demographer, said: “The sample households are picked based on the total population of the state. So, even as we cannot dispute facts found by the SRS, we must understand that this information will serve as an indicator, but is not the complete picture.”