Christians up by 1 per cent In Nepal's first census
(Nov. 28, 2012) Nepal's Christians are growing in numbers. In ten years, they went
from 0.4 per cent to 1.4 per cent in the country of 26 million, according to the latest
census released by the Maoist-controlled government on Monday. The findings are the
first since Nepal became a secular state in 2007. The latest estimates were from last
year. Hindus grew from 80 to 81 per cent. Muslims remained the same at 4.4 per cent.
Buddhists declined instead from 10.7 per cent to 9 per cent. Nepali Prime Minister
Baburam Bhattarai who unveiled the study said in his address, that no religion should
use the results to ask for privileges. "The country is secular and people from all
minority religions will enjoy equal status," he explained. "The government's programme
will focus on women and minorities because they were deprived in the past," he added:
Various experts and religious leaders criticised the data's accuracy however, because
of imprecise information, especially in relation to religion. We believe our population
is more than the report claims," Protestant leader CB Gahatraj said. "The problem
is that during the census period, many newly converted Christians were afraid to tell
their religion, and so were registered as Hindu." What is more, "when data collectors
didn't meet the people because they were absent, they simply put them down as Hindu."
Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) Director General Uttam Narayan Malla disagreesd
saying that data collection was all done by the book and that there was no need to
doubt its accuracy.