Readers' Forum
Interfaith figures
The "Figures for Bombay” section, which appears at the end of the Milestones column in every issue, has been showing zero interfaith marriages in 2024. Have Parsis stopped marrying out or has Parsiana suddenly become ultra-orthodox?
In this section you show figures for marriages and deaths. What about including the number of children born? Please list the birth figures as well. JAL S. DESAI
jaldesai@hotmail.com
The editors reply:
The figures for interfaith marriages are obtained from the offices of the Registrar of Marriages in Fort and Khar. Due to newly introduced bureaucratic procedures, Parsiana has been unable to access these figures since about a year.
For the birth figures we are dependent on the couple/family sending us the material. The Breach Candy Hospital kindly emails us Parsi birth figures every month, for which we are very grateful to them. We also extract birth information from the FEZANA Journal and elsewhere where possible.
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One reader wrote
I, too, have wondered about Mr. Jal Desai's observation. The editor's explanation is very honest and reasonable. However, I suggest that instead of reporting a "nil" column, please state that data on this is unavailable at this time.
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