WhileAssamchief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has called on the states immigrant Muslim Population to practise decent family planning practice, the fifth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) of 2019-20 released by the Union health minister in December shows that this community has seen the sharpest fall in fertility since 2005-06.
Muslims in Assam have recorded the most dramatic decline in fertility since NFHS-3, which was conducted 14 years earlier. While the number of children who would be born per woman or the total fertility rate (TFR) of the Muslim community in Assam at 2.4 is higher than the 1.6 for Hindus and 1.5 for Christians, the reduction in fertility among Muslims has been from 3.6 in 2005-06 to 2.4 in 2019-20, a drop of 1.3 compared to 0.4 among Hindus for the same period, although from a lower base.
The TFR of 2.4 among Muslims in Assam is only a little over what demographers call replacement level fertility, or the TFR level at which just enough babies are born to maintain population levels constant.
This is pegged at 2.1 and Indias overall TFR is 2.2. NFHS-5 data also shows that cultural and geographical factors as well as level of development are more important determinants of fertility than religion.
The TFR for Hindus too is low in Jammu & Kashmir at 1.32. Of the nine states in NFHS-5, the TFR is above replacement level in the Muslim community in just two states, Kerala (2.3) and Bihar (3.6), which are at two ends of the development spectrum. This shows that beyond just cultural and geographic factors, the level of development of a specific community is also a determinant of its TFR.