New-age NCR jobs attract all religions

NCR: No one ever doubted the cosmopolitan character of a city like Delhi — melting pot of cultures and religions. The high literacy rates, high proportion of working population among all religions did not come as a surprise. Ever wondered how would your neighbouring townships — Gautam Budh Nagar (Noida), Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ghaziabad fare? Trust the Census 2001, it''s not as bad as you thought.
One, people from all religions lives there — Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains.Naturally, one would think. Thanks to new-economy employment opportunities, people from all religions and strata migrate into Delhi first, and then trickle down to NCR townships in search of jobs. Since opportunities exist in these areas, there is a tendency among working people to eventually shift their residences. While the lure of a place like Delhi do pull them for a little while, commuting costs and time force many of them to review their decisions.
Hindus are in majority at all the NCR townships. Muslims have a significant presence in Gurgaon — 37% as against 11% in Faridabad, and 13% in Noida. Interestingly, the sex ratio (women per 1,000 men) among Muslims is a high of 903 in Gurgaon. Jains, with the highest literacy rates of 96%, also have the highest sex ratio of 909 here.
In the entire region, the highest sex ratio of 1,022 is registered among Christians of Noida. In simpler terms, in Noida out of a population of 4,881, 2,413 are men and 2,468 are women. A deeper look into figures reveal and not surprisingly — that not many Christians go for traditional jobs such as agriculture and household industry. The numbers are as low as 8 and 27 respectively. Above 2,000 persons or almost 50% of total Christians here, are registered under ''other workers'' category. This would include opportunities such as secretarial, BPO, customer service in shops and malls, healthcare and industries.
What adds to the cosmopolitan character of NCR cities is the high levels of literacy rates of most of the religious communities. Across cities and religions, barring Muslims, communities register a very good average of over 83% literacy rate. Muslims have low literacy rates of 19.7%, 36.3%, 40.7% and 49.1% in Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ghaziabad respectively. The last figure may seem surprising, as on an all-India level UP does''nt fare too well in literacy rates. This can be attributed to the pull factors here. Good educational institutions at Ghaziabad and the facilities of both training and jobs in nearby areas such as Noida and Delhi, pulls people towards education. Psychologists attribute such trends to demonstration effect — since others are doing it so shall we. However, literacy rate in nearby Noida is a low of 19%. One reason for this could be relatively larger rural Muslim population in Noida as compared to Ghaziabad.
Even though Buddhists are present across cities, their numbers are very low — 838 — in Gurgaon.
The boom in opportunities coupled with real-estate surges will continue to add to the new face of the NCR townships and their religious demography.