KOLKATA: If Muslims have a high birth rate, Hindus are a close second; fertility of all communities is dependent on socio-economic factors, like literacy, income and delivery of family planning education; fake news by propaganda machinery of the right-wing organisations must be countered by facts. These were the talking points in a panel discussion on ‘Population: Are Muslims Overtaking the Hindus in the city’ on Friday evening.
Panellists included former chief election commissioner of India S Y Qureshi, RS Trinamool MP Jawahar Sircar, former deputy chief of Indian Army and ex-VC, Aligarh Muslim University, Zameer Uddin Shah, former mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya and cardiac surgeon Kunal Sarkar.
“There has been a sustained campaign propaganda by right-wing organisations on the growth of Muslim population. This has given rise to various myths, which in turn stoke majoritarian fears of a skewed demographic,” said Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP.
Quereshi argued that Quran and Hadith show Islam may have been one of the first religions to advocate smaller families. “Most Islamic nations have very robust population policies in place and the clergy in those countries takes the initiative to educate the masses on family planning,” said Qureshi. “In India, the total fertility rate of Muslims is 2.6 while that of Hindus is the second highest at 2.1.”
“We often hear that the country should harness the benefits of its population dividends. But whether our population is our asset or our liability is not clear to anybody,” said Kunal Sarkar, cardiac surgeon and managing partner of Calcutta Debating Circle.
“There is very little difference between the fertility rate of Muslims and Hindus. This indicates there is a sustained propaganda to spread myth that Muslims will overtake Hindus in the future,” said Jawahar Sircar, Rajya Sabha MP.
“Such one-on-one interactions are the need of the hour to fight the propaganda war and have a dialogue based on facts,” said Imran Zaki of Faces, one of the organisers of the discussion.
This article first appeared on timesofindia.indiatimes.com