IANS Special: Taxpayers under stress due to changing demography, right time to bring population policy, says Manu Gaur

New Delhi, May 9 (IANS) The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, in its cross-country analysis, studied the changing demography in as many as 167 nations with respect to religion-based population and came up with perplexing details.

Among a series of findings, it found that the number of Hindu population in the country declined by 7.82 per cent while Muslims grew at 43 per cent during the period 1950-2015.

Manu Gaur, social activist and Taxpayers Association of Bharat (TAXAB) President spoke exclusively to IANS and shared his concerns over the population explosion and the changing demography in the country and also underlined the need for a population policy.

The EAC-PM report studied the changing population dynamics in terms of religion not just in India but also in many countries across Asia, Africa and other continents.

The report spotlights the growing and declining share of majority and minority religious population in their native land.

In the Indian subcontinent, all the Muslim majority countries have witnessed an increase in share of majority religious denomination except Maldives where the share of the majority group declined by 1.47 per cent.

As expected, the report drew a string of political reactions, mostly from the BJP, which slammed the previous Congress regimes for ‘shrinking’ Hindu population in the country over the past few decades.

Manu Gaur, sharing his views with IANS, said that the report was concerning as it depicts the changing religious dynamics in as many as 167 countries, between 1950-2015.

“Out of 167, there are 123 countries which have registered a decline in majority share while the minority share registered gain in their population. Though this report does not explain which religion clocked maximum growth in numbers, it is not difficult to decipher the reason behind this irrational and swift change in religious demography,” Manu Gaur said, citing the changing population matrix in the Middle-East.

He further said that India is no exception to this trend and it is not difficult to explain which religion has outgrown whom, at whose cost.

“As per a report, India and Nepal, both nations have seen surge in minority populations while the neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan have seen consistent decline in minority population there. It’s because of this the government was prompted to bring CAA to grant citizenship to persecuted minorities from these nations,” he pointed.

Manu Gaur also said that the population explosion is putting a heavy burden on the nation’s resources and the time is ripe to bring a population policy to address these challenges.

“The unprecedented changes in the country’s demography is putting a burden on the taxpayers, who mostly belong to the middle and upper-middle class. Today, they are being forced to re-think their tax contributions. They are sending their wards to foreign countries for further studies, who are now settling abroad also,” he said.

“Slew of government welfare schemes hinge on taxpayers money. If there are no taxpayers, who would fund the welfare schemes,” he asked and underscored that there is a pressing need to bring population policy to address these challenges.

–IANS

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