SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 19 of 98

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

According to the Census of India 2011, ‘Other Religions and Persuasions (ORP)’ comprise how much of the population?

(a)9.9 million
(b)5.9 million
(c)7.9 million
(d)3.9 million

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The Census of India 2011 counts about 7.9 million people under 'Other Religions and Persuasions', roughly 0.7 per cent of a population of 121 crore.

ORP is a residual head, not a religion. The census tabulates six religions separately — Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain — and every other answer a respondent gives is collected here, most of them tribal and indigenous faiths.

Those who gave no answer are counted apart, under 'Religion not stated'. Option (c) is the ORP figure.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
9.9 million — 9.9 million would push ORP past 0.8 per cent of the 2011 population. The published count stays under 8 million.
(b)
5.9 million — 5.9 million falls about two million short. The ORP total is close to 7.94 million, which the census rounds to 7.9 million.
(d)
3.9 million — 3.9 million is roughly half the ORP count, and no religion head in the 2011 tables carries this figure.

Concept

The census records religion as the respondent declares it, with no list to pick from. The tabulation then sorts those answers: six religions get rows of their own, everything else goes into Other Religions and Persuasions, and non-responses into 'Religion not stated'.

The 2011 shares are worth carrying whole: Hindu 79.8 per cent, Muslim 14.2, Christian 2.3, Sikh 1.7, Buddhist 0.7, Jain 0.4, ORP 0.7 and religion not stated 0.2.

ORP carries political weight because communities pressing for a census code of their own, the Sarna code demand being the most argued, are counted inside it.

The options are absolute counts in millions, not percentages. Read the question for its unit before reaching for the familiar 0.7 per cent figure.

Key facts

Census 2011 puts Other Religions and Persuasions at about 7.9 million people, or 0.7 per cent of the population.
Six religions are tabulated separately: Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain.
'Religion not stated' is a separate head from ORP, covering those who did not answer.
India's population at the 2011 Census was 121.09 crore.

Study next

Religion data in Census 2011 and the decadal change in sharesThe Sarna code demand and why ORP is contestedLiteracy, sex ratio and density tables of Census 2011

Common traps

Answering with the percentage share when the options are absolute counts.
Merging ORP with 'Religion not stated', which the census reports on its own.

Census 2011 is one of SSC's steadiest sources of one-line factual questions: the male-female literacy gap is asked at 12 Sep 2024, 12:30 pm, GA Q.17, the adolescent share of the population at 12 Sep 2024, 4:00 pm, GA Q.25, and the female share among adolescents at 25 Sep 2024, 9:00 am, GA Q.15.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.