Census 2011: Muslims in Gujarat ahead in child sex ratio

Ahmadabad: The 2011 census data shows that Muslims in Gujarat have the highest child sex ratio of 927 girls per 1,000 boys, as compared to 917 in Christians, 885 in Hindus and 848 in Sikhs.

Also according to the census data, literacy rate among Muslim women in the state is higher than among their Hindu counterparts.

The child sex ratio among Gujaratis is 890 girls per 1,000 boys. And barring Muslims and Christians, no other community has crossed the 900 girl child mark, a TOI report quoted census officials as saying.

The census data also revealed that Muslims had higher literacy rates than Hindus in general. However, Jains, Sikhs and Christians had better literacy rates than Muslims in Gujarat, the report further said.

The data showed that literacy rates of Jain men and women were almost at par to each other. However, in other communities, the gap in literacy between men and women was over 10 percent.

Also, Christians in Gujarat have the highest percentage of working women 35%, Hindus 25%, Muslims 10.5% and Jains 9.6%.

According to the data, the number of women non-workers in Muslims was 89.40%, it was over 90.84% among the Jain women and the Sikh community has over 88.71% women non-workers.

Quoting sociologist Gaurang Jani, the report further said that among Muslims the acceptance of traditional madrassa education is very high, even among the girls, and hence influences the literacy count.