Is Religion Act As a Booster of Population Growth in India? a Socio-Economic Evaluation in Present Scenario.

Understanding the nature and scope of the influence of religion on reproductive behavior and outcome has been a major challenge in the demographic literature from the very beginning. But today the religious affiliation as a determinant of demographic behavior is receiving renewed attention in demography.

This discussion paper mainly investigate whether in the present scenario in India religion act as a Booster of population growth or other determinants of socioeconomic development influence the fertility rate and reproductive behavior. Different Governmental data and research evidences indicates that fertility rate today in India are more catalyzed by education and other socioeconomic developmental factors than religious factors.

The evidences shows that States with high per capita income, better health facilities, high female literacy rate and women empowerment have lower the fertility rate in India. So,in the present scenario these socioeconomic factors are more effective determinants influencing the reproductive behavior than religious factors.

The proportion of Muslims grown from 13.4% to 14.2% in a decade, while proportion of Hindu had reduced to 79.8% from 80.5%. This implicitly suggest that Muslims have more children than other religious communities but the data shows that population growth rate and Total Fertility rate vary widely between different States of India. The TFR seems more closely related to per capita income, health care and prosperity state.

So, this research paper based on secondary sources probes the micro-data from NATIONAL FAMILY AND HEALTH SURVEYS in India to multi variant analysis to assess the contribution of socioeconomic factors to the fertility differential by religion.It explores the possible reasons for the large residual effects of religion on fertility and causes for the religious disparities in socioeconomic conditions. Finally, it conclude with the assessment of the implication of the current demographic trends for the future sizes of the different religious groups in India.