JOIN USIn the wake of the recent census figures showing a drop in the population of the Sikhs in the country, the president of the Haryana Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (HSGPC), Jagdish Singh Jhinda, has suggested that every Sikhs should have at least 5 children.
This, he said, would help increase the population of the community. Jhinda said this at an event in Kurukshetra in Haryana on Wednesday. His views on the issue resonate with those aired by the head priest of the Akal Takht in Amritsar, Giani Gurbachan Singh, sometime back.
At an event organiszed at Sri Anandpur Sahib in Punjab, the head priest of the Akal Takht had advised Sikhs to have four children. Some community leaders say the advise of the head priest needs to be taken seriously more than ever before, as the recent census figures on religion have only validated his opinion on the number of children a Sikh couple should have. The head priest has advised Sikhs to take the matter of dwindling population of Sikhs seriously.
As per the census figures, the Sikh numbers in the national population have come down from 1.9 per cent in 2001 to 1.7 per cent in 2011. The trend has left religious and community leaders worried. Punjab has the highest number of Sikhs. But in Punjab too, the population share of Sikhs has dropped from about 60 per cent in 2001 to 57.7 per cent in 2011. Punjab has a Sikh population of 1.6 crore as per the latest census date released in August.
Jhinda said the Akal Takht head priest should go beyond just advising the community in this regard. He said the head priest should rather issue directions to the community on the issue that will help address the problem of falling Sikh count. The Sikh headcount has also fallen because of the increasing trend of the Sikhs going abroad in pursuit of dollar dreams. It is said that every second house in Punjab has someone close or a relative settled abroad. The Sikhs settled abroad are not counted in the census by enumerators because of their absence. Besides migration, female foeticide and religious conversion is also being blamed for the falling Sikh numbers in India.