As per the results of the 75^th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) released in July, 2020, as regards the health of India’s religious communities, the Zoroastrian community remains the most susceptible to ailments. The GoI’s ‘Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’ released the report of the survey titled ‘Health In India’, whose main objective was to gather basic, quantitative information on India’s health sector. It details aspects of the role played by government and private sector facilities, and also contains health information of separate religious communities, including estimates of their susceptibility to ailments.

The report is based on information collected through NSS Schedule 25.0 (Household Social Consumption: Health) spread over the entire Indian Union. Data were collected through a sample survey of 1.13 lakh households covering 5.55 lakh persons. As per this survey, 31.1% of Zoroastrians reported that they were suffering from an ailment at the time the survey was conducted. This was much higher compared to other communities: Jains – 11.2%; Sikhs – 11%; Christians – 10.5%; Muslims – 8.1%; Buddhists – 8%; and Hindus – 7.2%.

The survey defines the term ‘ailment’ as any deviation from a person’s state of physical and mental well-being. The ‘Proportion of Persons who Responded as Ailing’, or PPRA, in a 15-day period when they were approached by the surveyors, were registered as those suffering from ailments. The survey also showed that women remain more susceptible to suffering from ailments than men. While in rural India, the men to women ratio stood at Males:6.1% to Women:7.6%, in urban India, the ratio stood at Males:8.2% to Women:10%.