JAIN MONK Acharya Nirbhay Sagar has urged members of the community to have at least four children each or else “the religion may not survive after 100 years”. At an event organised on the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha premises on Sunday, the Jain monk also asked parents not to hold social functions if their children married outside the religion.
“The community’s current population in the country is about 50 lakh. If there are only one or two children per family, the population will reduce to 25 lakh in the next 50 years and then plummet to six lakh in the next four decades. You may build temples, but there should be worshippers from the religion,” he said.
The Jain monk was addressing the ‘Samuhik Kshamavani’, an annual event of forgiveness, organised by the minority community on the state’s Vidhan Sabha premises. The event, usually held at the chief minster’s official residence in Bhopal, was attended by more than 3,000 community followers.
According to Census 2011, India is home to 45 lakh followers of Jainism, which is 0.4 per cent of the country’s population. There are 5.67 lakh Jains in Madhya Pradesh (0.78 per cent of the population), while Maharashtra (14 lakh or 1.25 per cent), Rajasthan (6.22 lakh or 0.91 per cent) and Gujarat (5.79 lakh or 0.96 per cent) have a higher Jain population.
At the event, Acharya Sagar urged the government to come out with a law to ensure that inter-faith marriages were disallowed for a woman below the age of 25. Parents were also told not to hold social functions when their children married outside the religion.
“When parents find a matrimonial alliance, the girls can marry at the age of 18, but not when they find a match on their own from outside the community,” Pankaj Pradhan, a Jain leader, said. Attendees were asked to vote on the proposal by raising their hands, people present at the programme told The Indian Express.
Resolutions were also taken to disallow dancing by women on streets during weddings and throwing lavish feasts during marriages, and limiting food items in such feasts to 21 or less.
Despite being in minority, the Jain community wields a massive clout in the BJP-ruled state. Sources said the annual event was not organised at the CM’s residence this year, allegedly as an expression of anger against the amendment of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has made several important announcements in the presence of Jain monks in lieu of their appeals. The recent decisions to establish a cow ministry in the state, not to allow new liquor shops and slaughterhouses to come up in the state and discontinue eggs from Anganwadi meals were also made in the presence of Jain monks.