Trouble is breeding. In fact, breeding is the trouble

It’s not a growth story UP would be proud of

State’s population increasing faster than the rest of India’s

M Tariq Khan

tariq.khan@hindustantimes.com

May 29, 20113

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh’s growth story is 2.5% higher than the country’s national average. The only worrying thing here is that we are talking about population and not development as three-fourth of the state’s people still live in rural areas.
While the country’s population grew by 17.7%, UP recorded the highest growth rate of 20.2 per cent. This was, however, less than the 25.8% growthw rate it witnessed between 19912001. The revelation comes in the 2011 census of the state which had a total population of 199.81 million (19.98 crore) as on March 1, 2011.
The big picture instead of becoming clear gets more obscure with the statistics disclosed by the State Census Office here on Wednesday. Apart from varying demographic and population trends, the figures, bring out certain inexplicable paradoxes even as they bust a couple of popular myths. For instance, literacy, at least in Gautam Buddh Nagar, seems to have failed in keeping a check on the population. This suburban district abutting the national capital region takes the cake for recording the highest male literacy (86.3%) and contributing maximum population growth of 49.11% to the state in the last decade. The district also accounts for having the lowest child sex ratio.
And though the state’s 16.70 million females have a higher growth rate of 21.2% against the 19.30% of 16.91 million males, the female child sex ratio has registered a decline. From 916 females per 1,000 males in 2001, the ratio fell to 902 in 2011, a drop of 14%. Anot her fall, albeit a minor one, has been witnessed in the number of scheduled castes, which now constitute 20.7% as against 21.1% of UP’s population, a decade ago. The scheduled tribe population, on the other hand, has gone up by 0.5%.
The total number of workers, who have been engaged at least for one day in a year, have registered a growth of 21.9% against 20.2% in the last decade. Uttar Pradesh has a total of 6,58, 14, 715 workers. Of this, 4,98,46,762 are males and 1,59,67,953 are female workers. The work participation rate, which was 32.5% in 2001, has gone up slightly to 32.9%.
 

 

 

POPULATION
19,98,12,431

Total : (199.81 million). Of this 833.5 million people live in rural areas and 377.1 million live in urban areas.
While the urban increase in population has been 28.8%, the rural areas contributed 18%. Ghaziabad is the most densely populated district. Lalitpur the least.
Gautam Buddh Nagar recorded the highest population growth rate followed by Shrawasti (31.1%).
Out of 71, 26 districts have recorded population growth above the national average of 17.7%.
29 districts have recorded population growth above state average of 20.2%.
16 districts have recorded population growth between the national and state average.

CHILD SEX RATIO (FEMALES PER 1,000 MALES)

Balrampur (950) has recorded the highest and Gautam Buddh Nagar (826) the lowest child sex ratio in rural areas.
In urban areas, Mau (954) has the highest and Ghaziabad and Meerut (848) have the lowest child sex ratio.
Three districts, namely, Jaunpur (1,024), Azamgarh (1,019) and Deoria (1,017) have recorded above average child sex ratio.
11 rural districts, which have recorded a drop in the sex ratio, include Ghazipur, Ballia, Gorakhpur, Mau, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh, Chandauli, Kushinagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Banda and Azamgarh.

 

STATE NOW CLOSING THE LITERACY GAP

The Census 2011 has some positive sides too, especially on the literacy front. Though still a far cry from Kerala, which has achieved 100% literary, Uttar Pradesh certainly seems to be closing the gap. According to the final data released by UP Directorate of Census on Wednesday, the literacy rate in the State now is at 67.7%, up from 56.5% in 2001. The country has a national literacy rate of 73%. In census parlance, a person aged seven years and above is considered to be literate, if he or she can read and write, with understanding, in any language.
Uttar Pradesh notched up an increase of 11.4% in literacy against the national average of 8.2%. Another heartening trend is the female literacy where the numbers have double compared to males. While, the decadal literacy rate among males grew by 8.5%, the growth amongst females was 15%.
There are almost 11.45 crore literate persons in UP, of the total population of over 19.98 crore. Almost, 8.53 crore and 2.92 crore literates are based in rural and urban areas respectively. As per census, cultivators form 29% of the total state workers, which comprised both main and marginal workers. The total workers’ number is 6.58 crore in UP. A main worker is one who has worked for six months or more during the reference year. While a marginal worker worked for less than six months.

LITERACY

The literacy rate among males was 59.6% and females 40.4%. The highest number of rural literates has been recorded in Allahabad district.
Kanpur district has the highest number of urban literates.
In urban areas, the lowest number of male literates are in Shrawasti.
Azamgarh has the highest number of rural female literates while Mahoba has the lowest.
Lucknow has the highest number of female literates in urban areas. Shrawasti accounts for the lowest.

Lucknow has the highest number of female literates in urban areas. The district has a population of 4, 589,838. Of this 23,94,476 are males and 21,95,362 are females. The city has a total number of 8,60,703 households. The literate population includes 17,42,440 males and 13,84,820 females.

But district wise, the urban literacy of the State capital, however, stands at sixth place. Lucknow's urban literacy rate is 84.20 %, Sonbhadra's is 86.35 %.
On literacy front among all the districts of the state, Ghaziabad has recorded the highest literacy rate (85%) during Census 2011 followed by Gautam Buddha Nagar (82.2 %).

Density of Population (Persons per Sq.Km.): Population density of the State in Census 2011 works out to be 829 showing an increase of 139 points from Census 2001. Ghaziabad district (3,971) turns out to be the most densely inhabited followed by Varanasi (2,395) both in 2001 and 2011 Census. The minimum population density works out in Lalitpur district (242) for both Censuses.

Work

As per Census 2011 the total numbers of workers (who have worked for at least one day during the reference year) in Uttar Pradesh is 6,58,14,715. Of this, 4,98,46,762 are males and 1,59,67,953 are females. Out of the increase of 1,18,30,891 workers during the decade 2001-2011, male workers have accounted for 88,65,204 and female workers 29,65,687.

The workers have registered a growth of 21.9 per cent, which is marginally higher than the overall population growth rate of 20.2 per cent during the decade. The male workers has grown by 21.6 percent and female workers by 22.8 percent.

Of the total workers in the state, 5,19,50,980 workers are in the rural areas and 1,38,63,735 are in the urban areas. The male workers in the rural and urban areas are 3,83,52,879 and 1,14,93,883 respectively. The female workers in the rural and urban areas are 1,35,98,101 and 23,69,852 respectively.

Census 2011, out of 6,58,14,715total workers, 4,46,35,492 are main workers and the remaining 2,11,79,223 are marginal workers. The percentage of main workers among the total workers, in Census 2011, is 67.8 percent against 72.9 percent in Census 2001.

The percentage of main workers among the male workers is 75.1 percent and female workers 45.2 percent. The percentage of male main workers has reduced from 83.8 percent to 75.1 percent in Census 2011. On the other hand, the percentage of female main workers has increased from 38.5 percent to 45.2 percent in Census 2011. Saharanpur district reported highest percentage of main workers (85.1%) as per Census 2011 and minimum of 44.2 per cent in Mahrajganj district.

For the first time in Census 2011, the marginal workers, i.e., workers who worked for less than six months in the reference year, have been sub-divided in two categories, namely, those working for less than 3 months and those who worked for 3 months or more but less than six months. Amongst the 2,11,97,223 marginal workers, 1,68,85,149 worked for 3 to 6months whereas only 42,94,074 worked for less than 3 months, amounting to 79.7 per cent and 20.3 per cent respectively.

Categories of economic activities of the workers

The broad categories of economic activities, also known as a four-fold classification of the workers, are, Cultivators (CL), Agricultural Labourers (AL), working in Household Industries (HHI) and Other Workers (OW). The cultivators and agricultural labourers broadly show the workers engaged in the agricultural sector, except those engaged in plantation activities, which, over the Censuses, have been considered as a part of ‘other workers’.

Out of total 6,58,14,715 workers, 1,90,57,888 are cultivators. The percentage share of cultivators to total workers has reduced from 41.1 percent to 29.0 percent in Census 2011.

 The percentage share of Agricultural Labourers to total workers has increased from 24.8per cent in 2001 to 30.3 percent in Census 2011. In rural and urban areas, the percentage share of agricultural labourers also increased by 7.5 percentage point and 2.4 percentage points, respectively.

The percentage share of workers engaged in Household Industrieshas been slightly increased by 0.3 percentage pointsduring 2001-2011. The share of male workers engaged in Household Industries remains constant, however,the share of female workers engaged inHousehold Industrieshas increased from 8.3 % to 9.7 percent during the decade 2001-2011.

Of the total workers in the state, 2,29,19,014 (34.8% of the total workers) are registered as ‘Other Workers’. The percentage share of other workers has also increased from 28.5 percent to 34.8 percent in 2011.

PROPORTION OF SC/ST POPULATION IN STATE

Population has increased by 62,09, 231. Urban—15.8% and rural-30.9%.
The highest number of Scheduled Castes has been recorded in Sitapur district and the lowest in Baghpat.
The scheduled tribe population has increased by 10,26,310.
The highest scheduled tribe population has been recorded in Sonbhadra (20.7%) followed by Lalitpur (5.9%) and Deoria (3.5%) and the lowest in Kannauj (0.001%).

Child Population (0-6 years): As per Census 2011, the child population in the age group of 0-6 years stands at 3,07,91,331. Of this, 2,50,40,583 were returned in rural areas and 57,50,748 in urban areas. Compared to Census 2001, the child population has declined by 8,33,297 in the state of Uttar Pradesh. There has been a decline of 12,18,630 in rural areas and an increase of 3,85,333 in urban areas. In terms of proportion of child population to the total population, there has been a decline of 3.6 percentage points in total population, 3.8 percentage points in rural areas and a decrease of 2.6 percentage points in urban areas.The Child Population in the state has declined by 2.6% in the last decade. However, there has been a decline of 4.6% in rural areas and an increase of 7.2% in urban areas.

Sex Ratio (Number of females per 1,000 males): The Sex Ratio in the state which was 898 in 2001 has increased by 14 points to 912 in 2011. In rural areas the sex ratio has increased from 904 to 918. The corresponding increase in urban areas has been of 18 points from 876 to 894. Three districts namely Jaunpur (1,024), Azamgarh (1,019) and Deoria (1,017) have recorded sex ratio more than thousand marks. The lowest sex ratio is recorded in district Gautam Buddha Nagar (851). In rural areas the highest sex ratio is recorded in district Jaunpur (1,032) while, thelowest is recorded in district Baghpat (856). In urban areas, the highest sex ratio is recorded in district Mau (951) while, the lowest sex ratio is recorded in district Gautam Buddha Nagar (836). Eleven districts namely Ghazipur, Ballia, Gorakhpur, Mau, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh, Chandauli, Kushinagar, SantKabir Nagar, Banda and Azamgarh show fall in the sex ratio in rural areas.