6. POPULATION

POPULATION SIZE AND DISTRIBUTION

•    People are themselves resources with varying qualities.
•    Population is the point of reference from which all other elements are observed and from which they derive significance and meaning like resources, calamities, disasters etc.
•    The Census of India provides us with information regarding the population of our country.
•    Census is an official enumeration of population done periodically. In India census is held every 10th year.
•    Uttar Pradesh accounts for about 16 per cent of the country’s population.
•    India’s population as in March 2001 stood at 1,028 million accounting for 16.7 per cent of the world’s population.
•    Almost half of the India’s population lives in just five states. These are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
•    Population density is calculated as the number of persons per unit area.
•    Population density is affected by relief of the area.

Population Growth   

•    The numbers, distribution and composition of the population are constantly changing. Hence population is a dynamic phenomenon.
•    Growth of population refers to the change in the number of inhabitants of a country/territory during a specific period of time.
•    Since 1982 India’s population growth rate is on the decline.
•    When more than a billion people increase even at lower rate, the total numbers added becomes very large.
•    The declining trend of the growth rate is indeed a positive indicator of the efforts of birth control.
•    The natural increase of population is the difference between birth rates and death rates.
•    The number of deaths per thousand persons in a year is the Death Rate.
•    Migration is the movement of people across regions and territories.
•    Migration can be internal and international.
•    Migration changes not only population size but also the population composition of urban and rural populations in terms of age and sex composition.
•    Pull and push are the factors responsible for migration.

Population Growth and Processes of Population Change

• The numbers, distribution and composition of the population are constantly changing. Hence population is a dynamic phenomenon.
• Growth of population refers to the change in the number of inhabitants of a country/territory during a specific period of time.
• Since 1982 India’s population growth rate is on the decline.
• When more than a billion people increase even at lower rate, the total numbers added becomes very large.
• The declining trend of the growth rate is indeed a positive indicator of the efforts of birth control.
• The natural increase of population is the difference between birth rates and death rates.
• The number of death per thousand persons in a year is the Death Rate.
• Migration is the movement of people across regions and territories.
• Migration can be internal and international.
• Migration changes not only population size but also the population composition of urban and rural populations in terms of age and sex composition.
• Pull and push are the factors responsible for migration.
• The age composition of a population refers to the number of people in different age groups in a country.
• The population of a nation is generally grouped into three broad categories, namely children (generally below 15 years), working age (15 – 59) years) and aged (above 59 years).
• Sex ratio is defined as the number of females per thousand males in the population.
• The sex ratio in India has always remained unfavorable to females.
• Keral has the highest sex ratio whereas Delhi and Haryana are amongst lowest.
• A person of seven years of age or above who is able to read and write with a certain understanding is called a literate.
• Males have more literacy than females.
• The distribution of the population according to different types of occupation is referred to as the occupational structure.
• Primary activities include agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, fishing, mining and quarrying etc. Secondary activities include manufacturing industry, building and construction work etc. Tertiary activities include transport, communications, commerce, administration and other services.
• Sustained efforts of government programmes have registered significant improvements in the health conditions of the Indian population. Death rate is considerably reduced.
• It is a matter of concern that the per capita calorie consumption is much below the recommended level in India.
• Adolescent population constitutes one fifth of the total population of India.
• Adolescents in India face the problem of malnutrition that can be dealt with by spreading awareness, literacy and education among them.
• The Family Welfare Programme has sought to promote responsible and planned parenthood on a voluntary basis.

National Population Policy 2000 aims at improving conditions of adolescents, aiming at encourages delayed marriages and child bearing, educating about risks of unprotected sex and provisions for nutritional needs

​Population Growth and Processes of Population Change

Due to births, deaths and migrations the number, distribution and composition of population change continuously.

Population Growth

The change in the number of people of a country or state during a specific period of time is called growth of population. Usually, it is mostly calculated at the interval of 10 years. The change can be expressed either in terms of absolute numbers or in terms of annual growth rate.

Absolute Increase of Population It means the absolute numbers added each year or in each decade in the population. It is obtained by simply subtracting the earlier population (e.g., that of 1991) from the later population (e.g., that of 2001).

Annual Growth Rate of Population The rate at which the number of individuals in a population increase in 1 year as a fraction of the initial population; is called annual growth rate of population. It is expressed in terms of per cent per annum. For example, a rate of increase of 2% per annum means that there was an increase of 2 persons for every 100 persons in the initial population.

Population Growth Rate Since Independence

India’s annual growth rate of population increased steadily till 1981. Since then, the annual rate of population growth started declining. Still the population growth of India in 1990s was 182 million (in terms of number). This addition of people was larger than ever before. In spite of decreasing annual growth rate (in percent), the largest addition in people (in terms of number) is due to the large population of the country.

Occupational Structure

Occupational structure referred to as the distribution population according to various types of occupation.
Economically active population percentage is an important index of development. There is a large variety of occupation in the country. The occupations are usually categorized into 

•    Primary
•    secondary 
•    tertiary occupations.

Primary occupations are those in which natural resources are extracted from the Earth. These include agriculture, fishery, forestry, mining, quarrying, etc.
Secondary occupations are those in which the extracted natural resources are processed into products for use. These include manufacturing, refining, construction, etc.
Tertiary occupations are those which support the primary and secondary occupations by providing services. This transportation, communications, commerce, administration, legal services, etc.

The pattern of the Working Population

The proportion of people working in different activities vary in developed and developing countries. The developing countries have more of their population working in primary occupations, whereas the developed nations have more of their population working in secondary and tertiary occupations.
In India, half of the population is engaged in agriculture alone. However, due to industrialisation and urbanisation in recent times, there has occurred a significant shift towards secondary and tertiary occupations which earlier stood about 13% and 20%, respectively.

Health

Health is an important component of population composition. It affects its development significantly. Due to the sustained efforts of government, healthcare programmes, life expectancy at birth has improved from 36.7 years in 1951 to 64.7 years in 2011.
The death rate has declined from 25 per 1000 persons in 1951 to 7.2 in 2011. However, healthcare and nutrition are still major issues. Malnutrition in children afflicts a large percentage of the population.
Availability of safe drinking -water and proper sanitation are major problems in rural areas and need urgent action. Only one-third of the rural population has these basic amenities. The level of nutrition and per capital calorie consumption is much below the recommended level. This can be reduced by appropriate policy on population.

Adolescent Population

Adolescents are population aged from 10 to 19 years. They currently comprise about 20% of India’s population and are an important future resource for the country.
Their nutritional requirements are more than that of either adults or younger children, but it our country the diet available for them is usually inadequate for their requirements, which leads to deficiency and stunted growth. Many adolescent girls suffer from anaemia and they must be made aware of their requirements through better education and literacy they confront.

National Population Policy

  Government of India initiated its first Family Planning Programme in 1952. This, promoted responsible and planned parenthood on a voluntary basis. In the year 2000, the government formulated the National Population Policy (NPP 2000), which had the following major objectives

•    Providing a policy framework for imparting free and compulsory school education up to 14 years of age.
•    Reducing infant mortality rate to below 30 per 1000 live births.
•    Achieving universal immunization of children against all vaccine-preventable diseases.
•    Promoting delayed marriage for girls.
•    Making family welfare a people-centred programme.

NPP 2000 and Adolescents

National Population Policy (NPP) 2000 identified adolescents as one of the major sections of the population that need greater attention.
NPP 2000 put greater emphasis on the important needs of adolescents including protection from unwanted pregnancies,’ Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and risks of unprotected sex. It focussed on programmes that aim towards encouraging delayed marriage and childbearing, education of adolescents, providing food supplements and nutritional services, etc. 

Summary points

•    The age composition of a population refers to the number of people in different age groups in a country.
•    The population of a nation is generally grouped into three broad categories, namely children (generally below 15 years), working age (15 – 59) years) and aged (above 59 years).
•    Sex ratio is defined as the number of females per thousand males in the population.
•    The sex ratio in India has always remained unfavourable to females.
•    Kerala has the highest sex ratio whereas Delhi and Haryana are amongst lowest.
•    A person of seven years of age or above who is able to read and write with a certain understanding is called a literate.
•    Males have more literacy than females.
•    The distribution of the population according to different types of occupation is referred to as the occupational structure.
•    Primary activities include agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, fishing, mining and quarrying etc. Secondary activities include manufacturing industry, building and construction work etc. Tertiary activities include transport, communications, commerce, administration and other services.
•    Sustained efforts of government programmes have registered significant improvements in the health conditions of the Indian population. Death rate is considerably reduced.
•    It is a matter of concern that the per capita calorie consumption is much below the recommended level in India.
•    Adolescent population constitutes one fifth of the total population of India.
•    Adolescents in India face the problem of malnutrition that can be dealt with by spreading awareness, literacy and education among them.
•    The Family Welfare Programme has sought to promote responsible and planned parenthood on a voluntary basis.
•    National Population Policy 2000 aims at improving conditions of adolescents, aiming at encourages delayed marriages and child bearing, educating about risks of unprotected sex and provisions for nutritional need.