The lady from the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MOMA) was puzzled. With the incentives that the government was extending to the community, why were not more Parsis having babies? She also observed there were few youngsters in the audience especially since the Jiyo (live) Parsi (JP) initiative was directed at them. When a mother of three in the audience on September 14, 2024 at the Y. B. Chavan Centre suggested that the government, aside from providing finance for in vitro fertilization and other facilities, should also pay for the vaccination expenses, the exasperated official explained that the JP scheme was framed exclusively for the Parsi community and such benefits were not offered to any other community. If vaccination was also included the next demand could be pampers, school fees, etc. One Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustee interjected that vaccines were already being offered free of cost at municipal clinics and hospitals. If the mother opted for a private clinic, she should bear the cost.
The JP program had resulted in around 400 births over the past 10 years since the scheme was introduced first by the Congress-led United Front government and continued by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance.
Though the BJP is viewed as an anti-minority political organization due to their policies and laws adversely targeting Muslims and Christians, they have always looked on the Parsis with favor. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when chief minister of Gujarat, had visited the holy town of Udvada in April 2011 on the occasion of the Iranshah Atash Behram’s 1,290th anniversary when he spoke fondly of the Parsis. The Zoroastrian emigrants from Persia had originally found refuge in Gujarat over 1,300 years ago, learnt Gujarati and are now residing largely in Maharashtra, since the bifurcation of Bombay state, with others scattered in different parts of India and the world.
The charitable, entrepreneurial and affable character of the community has stood them in good stead in India. Mahatma Gandhi praised them, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi married Feroze, a Parsi, Dadabhai Naoroji was one of the founding fathers of the Indian National Congress party, Bhikaiji Cama first unfurled the Indian flag in 1907 and Jamsetji Tata laid the foundation of Indian industry. So what is there not to like?
Perhaps the fact that this talented community is facing extinction. The union minister of minority affairs Kiren Rijiju, when addressing the gathering of prominent community leaders and others, said when he took over the ministry he first inquired which of the six minorities, namely Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains (added to the list in 2014) and Parsis was the smallest? When informed the Parsis were, he decided to start with them. The numbers had been declining at an alarming rate. The population dropped from a high of 1,14,890 in 1941 to 57,264 in 2011 when the last Government of India census was held. At an 18% decline per decade the all-India Parsi population today could be guesstimated at around 43,000. This is a cause for concern to everybody except those demographic deniers who claim either that the census figures are falsified or that many Parsis have migrated overseas (this is not reflected in the overseas Parsi population guesstimates). One has only to visit a fire temple to find it devoid of devotees and sometimes even a priest and his assistant. At one time Parsis would queue to enter certain fire temples on auspicious days! No longer.
Aside from a loss of faith, population numbers are declining in many developed countries. The major worry there is caring for the aged. India is destined to have an aging population before its economy has the means to provide for the growing number of dependents. Parsis face a similar dilemma. While the Calcutta anjuman is acutely aware that its future existence is threatened and that assets must be liquidated to care for its aged members, this same awareness and planning is not prevalent amongst many punchayets and anjumans elsewhere. With The Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India (FPZAI) holding only one meeting in the past five years one does not know the state of Parsis elsewhere. Federation meets are mandated to be held once a year. (Formerly they were twice a year but the number was reduced to one some years back and even that is not held.) Unfortunately the intransigence, adamancy and acrimonious policies of the former FPZAI executive council, among them mainly the BPP and their Gujarat proxies, sadly alienated several anjumans. When the meetings are held, they are attended largely by delegates from Bombay and a handful from Gujarat. The Federation members are occupied with routine matters; the government and private trusts focus more on the larger issues.
While the FPZAI sadly is moribund, the Global Council of Zoroastrians Trust is making its presence felt. Their focus on healthcare has assisted the Masina Hospital Trust to launch on September 12 a "Neuro Rehabilitation Center for the Parsi Community” which intends to offer "specialized, goal-oriented care in a secure and supportive environment.” It is ironic that earlier several of the FPZAI members had fiercely opposed the formation of a global body.
Today the BPP spends most of their funds subsidizing the ever burgeoning deficit incurred in managing Doongerwadi. Hardly any funds are available to allocate for the care or improvement of the living, which incidentally was the main reason for forming the trust around 350 years ago. The JP program will not succeed in reversing the declining population of Parsis. No government program anywhere in the world has succeeded in reversing that trend. But the assistance helps infertile couples who cannot afford fertility treatment to conceive and thereafter improve the quality of their lives.