Bombay: The Telling Figures for 2015

The interfaith marriage percentage has come down to 36% in 2015 from 38% in 2014 and 39% in 2013. The number of Parsi and interfaith marriages was less by 16 each, from 245 in 2014, to 213 in 2015. Usually the year preceding and following the leap year tends to see a rise in the number of community marriages but this was not applicable in 2015 when there were 137 community marriages and 76 interfaith marriages. In 2014 there were 153 Parsi and 92 interfaith marriages.
Of the 76 who married out of the community, 42 (55%) were males and 34 (45%) were females, similar to last year’s percentage.
The average age for grooms has remained 33 years since 2013 whilst for the brides it has been rising. In 2013 it was 29 years, in 2014, 30 years and in 2015, 31 years. For both the brides and the grooms, the youngest age at marriage was 22 years. For the brides, the eldest was 61 years old and for the grooms, the eldest was 58. The maximum number of Parsi marriages in 2015 were in the months of December (36), January (31) and February (24). September and October saw one community marriage each. The highest number of interfaith marriages were also in December (18), with January and November showing 10 each. There was not a single interfaith marriage in July and only one in September. Data on community marriages is obtained from the Bombay High Court, and of interfaith marriages from the Registrar of Marriages at Fort and Khar.
As per incomplete information available with Parsiana, there were 85 births in the community, just one less than the 2014 count of 86. However as compared to 48 boys and 38 girls in 2014, during the last year there were 43 girls and 42 boys born. Parsiana’s data is based on the Breach Candy Hospital that supplies information as also families who sometimes send us copies of birth certificates. We are still awaiting the official birth figures for 2015 from the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC). The BMC birth figures for 2014 was 208.
The number of deaths reduced by 39 from 793 in 2014 to 754 in 2015. Of the deceased there were 368 males and 386 females. Whilst the number of those consigned to the dakhmas reduced by 56 from 746 to 690, the number of those cremated increased from 45 to 64. Nearly 8.5% of the deceased were cremated in Bombay last year. (The percentage of those cremated to the total number of deaths for only the last quarter of 2015 when the Worli Prayer Hall became operational was 14%.) There were 31 bodies cremated at the Chandanwadi crematorium and 33 at the Worli crematorium where special facilities for the Parsis were introduced last September. An equal number, 32, males and females opted for cremation whilst 336 males and 354 females were consigned to the dakhmas.
The average age at death was 80. The highest age at death was 105 for one male and one female. The Doongerwadi death list sent to Parsiana by the Bombay Parsi Punchayet recorded the deaths of five centenarians. The youngest to die was a two-month-old infant. Amongst those cremated the eldest to breathe their last were two 102-year-olds (one male and one female) while the youngest was a 54-year-old female.
Presented below are the 2015 demographic figures pertaining to the Zoroastrian community in Bombay based on data available with Parsiana.