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Niranjan Takle
Niranjan Takle

Religion

Threefold increase in religion change in Maharashtra last 3 years

rti-graphic (File photo) Representational image

Maharashtra government's public information officer A.C.Udavant, in his reply to an RTI query, revealed that in the past three years, there has been a threefold increase in the applications for change of religion.

There is also a significant increase in the applications for 'change of name ' and 'change of date of birth'. The RTI query was filed by activist Anil Galgali.

Galgali had inquired about number of people opting for change of date of birth, name and religion in the Maharashtra Govt Printing and Publication Directorate, which publishes the gazette announcing these changes every month, in the year 2014, 2015 and 2016.

"The figures indicating the threefold increase in 'religion change' was really shocking,” Galgali said, adding people who have requested for change of religion haven't mentioned to which religion they converted to. He urged sociologists to take a note of this phenomenon.

The year 2014 had 247 people wanting to change their religion while there were 615 people who converted to a different religion and asked for the change to be reflected in 2015. The number rose to 797 in the year 2016. The total revenue earned from religion change applications in 2014 was Rs 65,581 which increased to Rs 2,61, 714 in 2015 and Rs 3,43,031 in 2016.

The total number of applications for change of name was 59,200 in 2014, of which as many as 5,750 were rejected and the total revenue earned from this was Rs 1,48,85,492. In 2015, this number rose to 1,56,477 of which 15,480 were rejected. The total revenue earned was Rs 6,87,23,265.

As many as 1,82,977 people filed applications for change of name in 2016 of which 14,184 were rejected and the total revenue earned was Rs 8,37,21,464.

The total number of change of birth date applications in 2014 was 1,432 of which as many as 326 were rejected. The total revenue from this was Rs 324,091. Next year, as many as 3,481 people filed applications for change of birth date and 468 of them were rejected. The revenue earned from this in 2015 was Rs 14,49,423.

The total revenue earned from change of birth date in 2016 was Rs 16,07,95. There were 3,583 applications of which 278 were rejected.

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Topics : #religion

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