Scary Stats

Dear Editor,
We Parsis, especially the youth in our marriageable and reproduction age need to do some serious soul searching, if we as a community expect to survive in India. The seriousness of the survival issue that we Parsis face will be evident on seeing the following statistical data.

1. We Parsis are the smallest among recognized communities in India.
2. As per the 2011 Census our numbers in India have shrunk to a measly 57,264.
3. Planet Earth is host to nearly 8,000,000,000 (8 billion) human beings, of which 1,300,000,000 (1.3 billion) or 16.25% of the world population lives in India.
4. We Parsis of India with our headcount of 57,264 are but 0.0044% of the populace of India and 0.0007% of the world we live in.
5. In India, a child is born every 1.37 seconds which translates into 63,014 children per day or 23 million (23,000,000) children per annum. As against this extraordinary number we actually lose around 750 heads every year.
These are admittedly sombre thoughts, which one hopes our community, especially our youth, will realise and act upon.

Dinshaw Tamboly

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‘Homage Unto Ahura Mazda’ Book Available

Dear Editor,
I am glad that you are serializing extracts from the above book. When I was the CEO of the BPP, with the Board of UK, I got published 5 extract editions of books, on Zoroastrianism and Parsis. One of these was the Captioned Book, for which Byram Avan, of Karachi, gladly gave the OK for its re-publication. It is a compact book, worth buying and reading.
Your readers can approach Aspi Bharucha, Admin. from BPP (22617421/23) for details.

B. T. Dastur

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Keep Up The Good Work!

Dear Editor,

I’m a reader of Parsi Times and I commend the fact that your publication always shares both sides of any controversial story – inspite of the fact that your publication is owned by BPP Trustee Kersi Randeria. Our sense of admiration for him went up manifold when you mentioned in your last editorial about him being a non-interfering boss and encouraging you to report the truth. It reflects in all articles that you cover. We have always heard about him from many Parsis first-hand about how he is always ready to help out our community members and is always at the forefront of fearlessly fighting for the right causes.
I and my full family – wife, daughter, father and also both my in-laws in Surat wait for Parsi Times every Saturday and genuinely appreciate all the columns and news. I have one suggestion if you could add columns or contests for children. Keep up the good work.

J. H. Sarbhanwala