Number of people wanting to change religion doubles in three years

Mumbai: There has been a more than two-fold increase in the number of individuals changing their religion in the state since 2014.

According to the official data revealed by the state government in a Right To Information (RTI) reply, the number of individuals applying for change in their religion stands to be 797 between April 2016 and March 2017 compared to 247 individuals applying to change their religion between July 2014 and March 2015.

Data collected under RTI reveals that out of the 247 individuals who applied for change of their religion between July 2014 and March 2015, the applications of 214 were approved while 33 were rejected.

Further, between April 2015 and March 2016, 615 individuals applied for change in their religion, of which 555 applications were approved and 60 applications were rejected. Between April 2016 and March 2017, 797 individuals applied for changing their religion, of which 45 were rejected and the remaining 752 were accepted.

The data also revealed that between the same period the state government received around 1.82 lakh applications for change in names, which was the highest number of applications received for the same since July 2014.

Between July 2014 and March 2015 around 59,000 individuals applied for change in their names, of which 53,000 were approved and 5,700 were rejected. Around 1.56 lakh applied for change in their names between April 2015 and March 2016, of which 1.40 lakh were approved and around 15,000 were rejected.

The RTI query was filed by Mumbai-based activist Anil Galgali and was replied by the state government’s printing press department.