2001 CENSUS OF INDIA: DATA ON SOME KEY ASPECTS

2001 CENSUS OF INDIA: DATA ON SOME KEY ASPECTS

According to the 2001 Census, India's population as on March 1, 2001 was 1,02,87,37,436 (this figure includes 'estimated' figutes for three subdivisions of Manipur as census in these places are reported to have been cancelled due to technical and administrative reasons). Excluding the estimated figures, the population of India in 2001 was 1,028,610,328 of which 532,156,772 were males, and 496,453,556 were females. However, the spatial distribution Of population within the country is very uneven. Obvious at the level of states, these contrasts are even more sharp at the level of districts.

Uttar Pradesh has the largest population followed by Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh in the same order. These five states together represent prac­tically half of the country's population. More than one­fourth of our people live in two states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra alone. Uttar Pradesh has more people than two largest states, Le., Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The three southern states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu together have fewer people than Uttar Pradesh alone. In fact, more people live in Delhi than in many other states or in all the Union territories put together.

The uneven nature of the distribution of population becomes more evident when we try to find out as to what proportion of India's population lives in each state of the Indian Union. This may be described as the 'Index of Concentration'. This index is 16.16% for Uttar Pradesh, 0.19% for Nagaland, 0.23% for Meghalaya and 0.99% for Jammu and Kashmir. The highly crowded state of West Bengal accommodates 7.79% of the country's population, while the shares of the agriculturally developed states of Punjab and Haryana are 2.37% and 2.05% respectively.

A closer examination of the census data shows that the states of the Indian Union have an unequal share not only in population but also in area. In fact, it seems that there is little relationship between area and population. The largest state in India, Rajasthan, accounts for about 11% of the country's total area and has 5.5% of the country's total population. Madhya Pradesh with an area share of about lO'Yo has a population share of 5.7%. However, Uttar Pradesh with 7.6% of total area has a population share of over 16%.

India's share of the world surface area of 135.79 million sq. km is a mere 2.4 per cent; its share of the world population is 16.7 per cent. The United Nations Population Division estimates that India is likely to overtake China in 2050 and become the world's most populous country with a share of 17.2 per cent of the total world population.

The world population is estimated to have grown at an annual rate of 1.4 per cent during 1990-2000. While China registered a growth rate of just one per cent in the decade, India's growth rate of population in the decade 1991-2000 was 1.9 per cent. China's growth rate is almost at par with that of the USA.
Distinct phases can be discerned in the population
growth of India during 1901-2001:
1901 - 1921 stagnant population
1921 - 1951 steady growth
1951 - 1981 rapid and high growth
1981 - 2001 high growth but with signs of slowing down

In absolute terms, of course. the population of India
has shown a huge increase during the decade 1991 - 2001; indeed, the addition in itself is greater than the entire population of Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world. However, the change in the net addition has shown a steady declining trend over the decades from 1961. It is also a sign of hope that the percentage decadal growth during 1991 -2001 has shown the sharpest decline since independence.

Among the states of India, Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state with a population exceeding that of Pakistan (the sixth most populous country in the world). Indeed, the combined population of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal is more than that of Brazil. There are 19 states with a population of more than ten million, while there are eight States and Union Territories which are yet to reach the one million mark. The five states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra. Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh account for almost half of the country's population. Andhra Pradesh has, however, shown a remarkable decline in the decadal growth rate - by about ten percentage points - in 1991­-2001, indicating the possibility of other states also emulat­ing the example.

The states and Union territories that have shown increases in per cent decadal growth, namely, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Nagaland, Gujarat, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, together constitute about 32 per cent of the country's population. Almost two­thirds of India's population lives in States and Union territories, which show a declining, trend in population growth. A few States and Union Territories have shown a reverse trend in respect of the increase in net accretion to the population at the national level in 1991-2001. The most significant drops in net addition are shown by four states - Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. These four states, indeed, may together have been partly responsible for arresting the growth of population in the country. The number of states and Union Territories with percentage decadal growth below the national average has increased substantially from six in 1981-91 to 15 in 1991-2001.
A strong positive relationship seems to exist between the growth rate and the child population in the age group 0-6. As one may safely assume that inter-state migration is least likely to affect this age group. In a population not greatly affected by large changes in age structure, adult migration or child mortality between two points of time, a significant fall in proportion of children in this age group may be taken as a broad indication of fall in fertility during the period. In India the proportion of children in the age group 0-6 decreased from 17.94 per cent in 1991 to 15.9 in 2001. In the-- contiguous four major states of the South­Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and KeraIa - a decline in fertility appears to be well established, spreading in influence to neighbouring Maharashtra and Orissa and West Bengal.

The density has increased by 21.3 per cent in 2001 as compared to 1991. Large increase in the density of popu­lation puts pressure on the limited resources available and adversely affects the quality of life.
In India there is a large variation across the states and Union territories in terms of density due to the wide differences in climate and availability of resources: Arunachal Pradesh with a density of 13 at one extreme and Delhi with a density of 9,340 at the other. While all the states and Union territories have shown an increase in density, there are wide variations in the rates of increase. West Bengal continues to be the most densely populated state, but the second position has now been taken by Bihar; KeraIa has been pushed into third position. Regionally, the Eastern region emerges as the most densely populated and the North-Eastern, as the least.