Must worry about female foeticide, not religious imbalance: Muslim cleric

Muslim cleric Imam Umer Iliyasi today drew attention towards the rising cases of female foeticide and downplayed the RSS resolution asking the government to reformulate the population policy to check demographic imbalance.

"Instead of worrying about the increase or decrease of population of the country, we must worry about female foeticide. The balance of the country's population is being disturbed because of this. If you look at Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, you will notice that our balance has been disturbed in a way that the women population has gone down and male population has increased," he said.

"As far as the demographic balance is concerned, it is the work of God to maintain the balance. It cannot be handled by man. An example of the interference by man in maintaining balance can be seen in China where they started a 100 years policy and now the result is in front of all. They are now requesting people to give birth to more and more number of children," he added.

The RSS on Saturday sought a review of the population policy to counter "severe demographic changes" in India, flagging what it considers a high rate of growth among Muslims in the country.

The RSS passed a resolution on this contentious issue at its three-day national executive in Ranchi.

The RSS and its affiliated organisations have been citing the last census figures to claim that Hindus are facing the threat of being swamped by Muslims, though the minority community accounts for only 14.2 percent of the country's population while their population is growing at a slower rate.