Community count: Sikh intellectuals, clergy differ

AMRITSAR: Sikh intellectuals have different a view from the clergy about ways to tackle the declining population of the community following the religious data released from the 2011 Census. Sikh clergy had asked the community members to have more children and spread the teachings of Gurus, but the intellectuals and professionals feel the government should do away with the reservation, create job opportunities and provide conducive atmosphere for growth of business and industry aiming to check the exodus of Sikhs to other countries.
Sikh intellectual and medical practitioner Dr H S Nagpal said, "This is not such a big issue as is being made out by the media. We need good, strong and healthy Sikh children and not a large crowd of Sikhs." He said a significant number of Sikhs had migrated to other countries and whether they were included in the Census or not was not yet known. Dr Nagpal said the community should bear children required to maintain their percentage at the national level, but a minor decline was nothing to worry as population growth of Hindus had also gone down.
Sikh think tank Amarjit Singh opined that government must look into reasons why the population of Sikhs was declining. "Most Sikh youths are either going or are ready to go abroad. Not only educated parents, but even farmers and government employees are going all-out to send their wards abroad - the main reason is reservation and government must understand it."
Editor-in-chief of 'Encyclopedia of Sikhism' professor Jodh Singh said, "When statements start coming from religious and political leadership, the issue becomes sensational and looks very serious, but it was not so." He said the population of other communities was also declining. "Sikhs shouldn't feel insecure about it," Prof Jodh added. Disagreeing with idea of producing more children, he said, "We should bear the number of children we can up bring well."