subject: Census of India 2011-Overviews-issues and challenges [print this page] Census of India 2011-Overviews-issues and challenges
Census 2011's provisional data, released on Thursday, affirms the India growth story - population growth slowing down and the number of literates growing, especially female literates. The census is the sole data base in India that the government uses to formulate its policies.
Overview of population:
India's population in 2011 is estimated to be 1.21 billion, comprising 624 million males and 587 million females. While the gender imbalance in population remains, the preliminary census figures show that India's female population grew by 18.12 per cent over the past decade against 17.19 per cent for males.
India's population accounts for the world's 17.5 per cent, second only to China that constitutes 19.4 per cent. China's population is 1.35 billion.
India's population growth rate has decreased to 17.64 per cent in the decade 2001-11, which is the slowest rate of growth in this past century.
Among the States and the Union Territories, Uttar Pradesh is the most populous State with 199 million people, followed by Maharashtra with 112 million people. Lakshadweep is the least populated at 64,429 people.
The growth rate was at its lowest between 1941-1951 when it was 13.3%: that was a time of famine, religious killings, and the transfer of populations in the run-up to partition.
The growth rate was more than 24% between 1961 and 1981. So a 17.64% growth rate points to a slowing down that will cheer those who are concerned about how India will bear the burden of its massive population. Further is the bad news for those with such concerns are that India still has more than a billion people, and this number is rising. Indian politicians and policy planners speak eloquently.
But such optimism can be unfounded if the state is found wanting in the way that it is. Social scientists warn that it is very easy for this demographic dividend to turn into a deficit with millions of uneducated, unskilled and unemployed young people on the streets, angry and a threat to peace and social stability. Where as many industrialists complain that there is shortage of both skilled and unskilled manpower in the recent past in India. This is good news for them.
The government would like to say that the dip in population growth has to do with pushing a successful contraception programme in the country. But social scientists say that with rising urbanisation, it is no surprise that population growth is on the decline. Increasing urbanisation leads to nuclear families in small homes paying high rents in increasingly expensive cities. Having more children does not help matters.
The growth of 17.6 percent from 2001, the last time Indians were counted, compared with 21.5 percent in the previous decade, the preliminary census report said.
The decline reflects the desire of even poor people to educate their children and for a better life. Now many have come to that having too many children will be counter-productive.
Beijing's strict one-child policy has brought down annual population growth to less than 1 percent and the rate is projected to turn negative in another three decades.
India's population is projected to overtake China's by 2025 and its large youth population means it can look forward to a demographic dividend that includes ample supply of labour, rising productivity and plenty of younger workers to fund the pensions of those who have retired.
A decline in population growth means India's national income may break out of the trend of increasing just ahead of population growth, potentially freeing millions of dollars the government now spends on welfare schemes. It may lead to higher living standards and sounder public finances in a country with enough young people.
Sex ratio:
The overall sex ratio nationwide has increased by seven percentage points to 940 against 933 in Census 2001. Sex ratio is defined as the number of females per 1,000 males. An increase in sex ratio was observed in 29 States/Union Territories. Kerala with 1,084 has the highest sex ratio followed by Puducherry with 1,038. With 618, Daman and Diu has the lowest ratio.
"This is the highest sex ratio at the national level since Census 1971 and a shade lower than 1961. Three major States Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar and Gujarat have shown a decline in sex ratio as compared to Census 2001.India's skewed sex ratio due to female foeticide and selective sex determination has been a cause for concern.
However, the area of grave concern, remained the lowest ever child sex ratio of 914. The provisional data showed that the child sex ratio [0 to 6 years] came down to 914 females per 1,000 males against 927 in Census 2001. It showed a continuing preference for male children to females in the last decade.
An increasing trend in the child sex ratio was seen in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but in remaining States/UTs, the child sex ratio showed a decline. While the overall sex ratio has improved since 1991, the decline in child sex ratio has been unabated since the 1961Census. The total number of children in the age group of 0-6 is now 158.8 million, less by five million since 2001.
Literacy rates:
India's literacy rate has gone up from 64.83 per cent in 2001 to 74.04 per cent in 2011. Literates constitute 74 per cent of the total population aged seven and above. Offsetting the general gender bias is the fact that of the 217 million literates added, 110 million are women, outnumbering men.
Even as there was a sense of achievement at the improvement in the literacy rate, questions are being raised about what constitutes literacy and the real import of the continued high gender gap.
Literacy rate improved sharply among females as compared to males. While the effective literacy rate for males rose from 75.26% to 82.14%, marking a rise of 6.9%, it increased by 11.8% for females to go from 53.67% to 65.46%. The gap of 21.59 percentage points recorded between male and female literacy rates in 2001 census reduced to 16.68 percentage points in 2011. The Planning Commission had set up a target of reducing this gap to 10 percentage points by 2011-12.
Eleven states and Union Territories have recorded literacy rates below the national average of 74.04%. This includes Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Over the last decade these states have improved literacy rates anywhere by 6.2% to 24%. While Bihar is the most laggard, at a literacy rate of 63.8%, it has made substantial improvement over its Census 2001 performance of 47%.
The most impressive gain was made by Jharkhand, which improved on its Census 2001 figure of 53.6%. The state's literacy rate according to the provisional numbers announced on Thursday is 67.6%.
More heartrendingly new female literates outnumbered male literates during the past decade. Ten states and union terriorities achieved a literacy rate of above 85%. This is an achievement India can be proud of.
