New Delhi/IBNS: The Hindu population in India are on decline while the minorities including Muslims, Christians and Sikhs are on the rise, a study by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) said, media reports said.

As per the report, the population share of Hindu, the majority religion, in India has gone down by 7.8% between 1950 and 2015.

The Hindu population has dipped from 84 percent to 78 percent.

On the other hand, the Muslim population grew from 9.84% to 14.09%, Christians rose from 2.24% to 2.36%, Sikhs grew from 1.24% to 1.85%, Buddhists from 0.05% to 0.81%.

However, the Jain and Parsi community, which are also a part of the minority population, have witnessed a dip in numbers.

While the Jain population dipped from 0.45% to 0.36%, Parsis declined by 85 percent from 0.03% to 0.0004%.

EAC-PM member Shamika Ravi said as quoted by The Indian Express, "The change in proportion of minorities as a share of the total population serves as a reliable proxy for the status of minorities in a country, which is fostered via policies including defining minorities, which itself is a rate practice globally."

The authors of the study said, as quoted by the media, "India’s performance is consistent with the larger global trends."

"Contrary to the noise in several quarters, careful analysis of the data shows that minorities are not just protected, but indeed thriving in India," they added.

The reason behind the increase in minority population can be varied including migration, conversation but the authors say, "We abstract away from the causes of this change and instead focus on the share of the minority population as a cumulative outcome measure of their well-being."

The authors say the change in the minority population in the country is an indicator of the well being of the country.

"A society which provides a congenial environment for the flourishing of minorities is more likely to witness an increase or stabilization in their numbers over a period of three generations," the authors said.

They added, "Conversely, a society which creates a hostile environment for minorities and/or denies them access to public goods and services is more likely to witness a decrease in their share of the overall total population. The nature and extent of change in the share of the minority population in a country is  therefore a strong indicator of their relative wellbeing within a country." 

Apart from India, Hindus as the majority religion saw a decline in its share by 3.6% in Nepal.