The drive to document the spread of Jainism in India was conceived in Palitana, where representatives of different sects, including Shwetambar, Digambar, Sthanakvasi and Terapanthi held a meeting a year ago.
The Jain community, which was granted minority status in 2014, believes that the size of the community is four times bigger than the 45 lakh as per the Census 2011.
As per a report in The Times of India, to map the community’s size and spread, different sects have joined hands to launch a mega drive that will begin at the end of the chaturmass (monsoon season).
The drive to document the spread of Jainism in India was conceived in Palitana, where representatives of different sects, including Shwetambar, Digambar, Sthanakvasi and Terapanthi held a meeting a year ago.
Acharya Rashmiratnasurishwar will spearhead the initiative and the process will be supervised by a 20 member committee.
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The drive will start in September. During the chaturmaas(four months of the monsoon season), the Jain monks and nuns live at a single location. This time will be used to create awareness about the drive among the Jain community.
Acharya Rashmiratnasurishwar said “Posters are being pasted at all religious organizations (sangh) during chaturmaas informing about internal session of Jains. Exhaustive data collection will take place soon through website and a mobile application. A software is also being developed to analyse and tabulate the data.”
Girish Shah, trustee of Jain Shasan Sansthan, said the community is concentrated in states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka and significant Jain population is found in Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai as well.
"Each and every Jain household and organization across India will be reached through state and district-wise volunteer teams. Online and door-to-door surveys will be held to count each and every Jain," said Shah.
Data collected will be a person’s religious education, whether any family member has taken diksha, profession and about the Jain organisations such as derasars, trusts and animal care units.