Centre moves to push up Parsi numbers

The Central government is seeking inter-ministerial consultations to increase and stabilise the declining population of Parsis, lest they become extinct in India. The minority affairs ministry has submitted a concept paper to the Planning Commission for its approval and also asked the Commission to begin consultations with other concerned ministries of health and finance to finalise the plan.

The minority affairs minister Salman Khurshid, who tried in the past to help Parsis with Rs1 crore from the exchequer, said the new plan envisages setting up of counselling centres and fertility clinics as the community has the lowest child birth  record. He said while government policy has been to promote family planning to restrict country’s population, the minorities affairs ministry has sought reversal of policy in case of Parsis, who are one of the five notified national minorities.

The DNA had earlier reported the letter written by  Keki Daruwalla, Sahitya Akademi award-winning poet and a member of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM to the Planning Commission (PC). He had highlighted the Census figures which show that the number of Parsis in 1941, which was 1,14,890, almost halved to 69,601 by 2001. He has requested central funding for these schemes so that they can be implemented on a national scale. According to the committee report, funding infertility clinics will cost the Centre a modest Rs20 crore.

The National Commission for Minorities has also suggested  the community to reverse the trend of late marriages or no marriages. A survey commissioned by the NCM found birth rates dropping to 174 in 2006 from 223 in 2001. Since the 1950s deaths have consistently outnumbered births every year, resulting in aging population.

Thirty per cent of the total population are above 50, while the number of adolescents and children remained just around 12 per cent. Since Parsi laws have made divorce easier, their  divorce rates are also higher than those for other  communities. Agaisnt the general population growth rate of 21%, amongst the Parsis there is no growth but a decline of 8.88%.

Salman Khurshid said the declining population of Parsis was also their not marry into other communities. The reformist Parsis, however, say the  minister is  mistaken on this count because large number of Parsis are rather marrying outside the community, but it is their priest community of Dasturs who declare them as non-Parsis. Take into account all those marrying into other religious communities and their children and one will find the population of Parsis actually growing, though not with the same pace as other communities, the reformists point out.