Census in Nepal Reportedly Labels 2.3 Million Christians as Hindus
December 29, 2012 – By Jeremy Reynalds – Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
NEPAL (ANS) — Christian leaders of Nepal complain that their numerical strength has been highly underestimated in the nation’s first census after it became a democracy.
“We can produce concrete proof of our numbers, as we have registered all our members at over 8,500 churches. We are above 2.5 million but the census of 2011 shows us to be just 300,000,” C.B. Gahatraj, general secretary of the Federation of National Christians of Nepal (FNCN), said at a press conference in Kathmandu this month.According to a report by the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA-RLC), the alleged manipulation in the census data while the nation is transitioning from a Hindu monarchy to a secular republic is concerning.
WEA-RLC said the number of Christians has increased from about 0.4 percent in 2007, when the country was officially declared as a secular state after over two centuries of Hindu monarchy, to 1.4 percent of the 26.4 million people as stated by the Census 2011 report by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
However, the latest figures are a result of apparent manipulation, said Dr. K.B. Rokaya, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Nepal, with whom WEA-RLC spoke in Kathmandu.
WEA-RLC reported that Rokaya, who is also a member of the government’s National Human Rights Commission, said he suspects “double manipulation.”










