Atheists grow by 280%, religious 20% in State

For the growing folk of fake Babas, the warning shot from religion census in Odisha is atheists’ population has grown by a whopping 280 per cent during the decade of 2001 - 2011.The atheist population has grown from mere 20,195 in 2001 to a high of 76,919 in 2011. This when the census reveals that Hindus in State grew by around 13 per cent during the decade, Christians posted a strong growth of over 29 per cent and Muslims grew by around 19.6 per cent.

However, the most important lesson the religious census delivered in Odisha is Christian community here posted a healthy sex ratio of 1,034 followed closely by other religious practitioners including unclassified sects with 1,030 females per 1,000 males. Poorest sex ratio of 902 females per 1,000 males is observed among the Sikh community in Odisha. Though Buddhists and Jains have a very negligible size in Odisha, yet they show up a poorer sex ratio with around 919 and 928 females per 1,000 males respectively. Muslims have 956 females per 1,000 males and Hindus have around 977 females per 1,000 males. This brings to fore the fact that female foeticide is not a trend in tribal sects and Christian community in Odisha.

According to 2011 religious census, the population of Hindus in the State is 3.93 crore followed by around 11.6 lakh Christians and over 9.1 lakh Muslims. Other religious sects have a total population of over 4.78 lakh, whereas Sikh population totals to 21,991, Buddhists at 13,852 and Jains at around 9,420 respectively. Hindus now constitute around 93.6 per cent of State’s population against 94.3 per cent in 2001, whereas Christians share a pie of 2.7 per cent and Muslims around 2.17 per cent respectively against their respective shares of 2.4 and 2 per cent in 2001. Other sects now constitute around 1.14 per cent and atheists occupy 0.2 per cent of the total State population against their shares of 0.98 and 0.05 per cent respectively in 2001. This shows Hindus share in population in 10 years dipped by 0.7 per cent in State, whereas Muslims share grew by 0.17 per cent. Christians share in State population in 10 years was up by 0.3 per cent.

If per year growth is looked into then Hindus grew by 1.3 per cent per annum, Christians by 2.9 per cent and Muslims by 1.96 per cent, other religious sects by 3.2 and atheists by 28 per cent per year respectively during the decade of 2001 - 2011.Sundargarh in Odisha has the highest atheist population followed by Cuttack, Khordha and Ganjam. When Cuttack has maximum Muslim community in State totalling to 1.41 lakh, Bhadrak comes second with around 1.04 lakh.  

However, during the decade Bhadrak saw around 24 per cent rise in Muslim population and Cuttack posted a growth of over 16 per cent. Sundergarh with over 3.8 lakh has the highest Christian population in the State followed by Gajapati with 2.19 lakh and Kandhamal with over 1.48 lakh respectively. The year-on growth per year in all the districts has been around 2.6 per cent per year during the last decade reveals the census data.