The Christian community has recorded a better sex ratio, at 1,031 females per 1,000 males, compared to other religious communities in Maharashtra, while the Sikhs have a considerably low number of 891, as per 2011 census.
The ‘Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2015-16’ tabled in the state Legislature today, also revealed the state’s population is 11.24 crore, 9.3 per cent of the total population of India, and second after the Uttar Pradesh’s.
The survey report, which cites the census data of India 2011, shows a seven point increase in overall sex ratio of the state from 922 in 2001 to 929 in 2011.
“In terms of religion-wise sex ratio, Christians rank first with a sex ratio of 1,031, followed by Buddhists 970, Jains 964, Hindus 928, Muslims 911 and Sikhs 891,” it said.
The sex ratio in urban areas has increased from 873 to 903, however, in the rural areas it has decreased from 960 in 2001 to 952 in 2011, it said.
The religion-wise proportion of population shows huge gap between Hindus and other communities.
“Hindus, with 79.8 per cent top the list, followed by Muslims 11.5 per cent, Buddhist 5.8 per cent, Jains 1.2 per cent, Christians 1 per cent and Sikhs 0.2 per cent,” it added.
When it comes to religion-wise literacy rate, Jains with 95.3 per cent rank first, followed by Christians 92.3 per cent, Sikhs 90.9 percent, Muslims 83.6 per cent, Buddhist 83.2 per cent, and Hindus 81.8 per cent.
The adult literacy rate in Maharashtra has gone up from 76.9 per cent in 2001 to 82.3 per cent in 2011.
The survey said the religion-wise decadal growth rate (DGR) has decreased for all religions resulting in an overall decline of 6.7 percentage points.
The total proportion of urban population is 45.2 per cent in 2011 as against 42.4 per cent in 2001. About 63 per cent of the state population belongs to working age group of 15 to 59 years, it says.
