Interesting numbers on India's beggar population out! How do Hindus and Muslims fare? - Read

New Delhi: While the population of Muslims stands at 14.23% of India’s total, their percentage in the number of beggars is comparatively high.

As per the Government of India, there are 3.7 lakh beggars in the country. Of these, around 25% are Muslims.

The data, which was based on the religious orientation of those considered ‘non workers’ in Census 2011, was published last month.

As per the Census 2011, ‘non workers’ are people who are non-participant in any economic activity (paid or unpaid), household duties or cultivation.

The Census 2011 categorised 72.89 crore individuals as non workers and of these, 3.7 lakh are beggars.

In the 2001 Census, 6.3 lakh individuals were categorised as beggars. The difference between the 2011 and 2001 numbers is a good 41 percentage points.

Meanwhile, the Census 2011 listed 92,760 Muslims as beggars — almost a quarter of India's total beggar population of 3.7 lakh.

According to The Indian Express, Hindus, who make up 79.8% of the total population, had 2.68 lakh individuals as beggars (72.22% of India's total beggar population).

Christians - 2.3% of the total population - make up 0.88% of the beggar population (3,303 individuals). Buddhists (0.52%), Sikhs (0.45%), Jains (0.06%) and others (0.30%) follow.