Indian Christians are among the last in terms of human develo-pment in Indian society. The rate of unemployment among Christian men in rural as well as urban areas is higher than those from other religions across the country, Fides News Agency reported July 2, 2019.

Minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi presented the data in the Lok Sabha in reply to a question posed by Trinamool Congress member Prasun Banerjee. Banerjee asked the government whether it has any updated data on the unemployment rate prevailing minority communities.

Naqvi cited the data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) of 2017-18. The PLFS was launched by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in 2017 as a nationwide Labour Force Survey. According to the report, the unemployment rate among Christian men is at 6.9% in rural areas and 8.8% in urban areas, higher than men of other religious communities. Among women, Sikh females accounted for the highest number of unemployed in urban areas and Muslim women in rural areas. The minister said that in rural areas the rate of unemployment among Hindu men was 5.7%, among Muslim men 6.7% and among Sikh men, it was 6.4%. On the other hand, in urban areas, 6.9% of Hindu men remained unemployed, 7.5% was the rate among Muslim men and 7.2% among Sikh men.