Social Sciences, asked by Oghirsch1517, 1 year ago

three reason to increase the population census india

Answers

Answered by fuggy96
0
1. Widening Gap between Birth and Death Rates:

The average annual birth rate in India which was 42 per thousand populations in 1951-61 came down to 28.7 per thousand in 1993. The death rate also came down from over 27 per thousand populations in 1951-61 to 9.3 in 1993 (The Hindustan Times, July 11, 1995). Thus, since birth rate has shown a small decline and the death rate has gone down rather sharply, the widening gap has increased our population rapidly. The total fertility rate (average number of children born per woman) came down from about six in the fifties to 3.5 in 1992-93. Yet, for the past ten years, the average family size has stayed out at 4.2 children.

If we add the an­nual figures of abortions (between 10 and 11 million including 4 million spontaneous and 6.7 million induced) to the annual number of births (17 million) that take place in the country, we come to the shocking conclu­sion that in this age of family planning, one out of every five Indian women in the reproductive age group of 15-45 years is pregnant at any time.

2. Low Age at Marriage:
Child marriages have been very common in our country. According to the 1931 census, 72 per cent marriages in India were performed before 15 years of age and 34 per cent before ten years of age. Since then, there has been a continuous increase in the mean age of marriage among both males and females. The mean age at marriage of females increased from 13.1 in 1901 to 13.2 in 1911, 13.1 in 1921, 13.7 in 1931, 14.7 in 1941, 15.6 in 1951, 16.1 in 1961, 17.2 in 1971, 17.6 in 1981 and 18.4 in 1991.

In 1994, the mean age at marriage was estimated to be 19.3 years. Against this, the mean age at marriage of males increased from 20.0 in 1901 to 20.7 in 1921,19.9 in 1951, 21.4 in 1961, 22.2 in 1971, 22.6 in 1981 and 22.9 in 1991 (Handbook on Social Welfare Statistics, 1981: 50 and the Hindustan Times, July 11, 1995). In 1994, the mean age was es­timated to be 23.1 years. Thus, though the mean age of marriage has been continuously increasing, yet a large number of girls even today marry at an age at which they are not ready for marriage either socially and emotionally, or physiologically and chronologically.

The infant mortality rate is directly related to the age of women at marriage. If we divide women in three groups in terms of age at mar­riage, namely, below 18, 18-20, and 21 and above, the infant mortality rate in each of these three groups in rural areas (in 1978) was 141, 112 and 85 respectively while in the urban areas, it was 78, 66 and 46 respec­tively (Social Welfare Statistics, 1981:50).

If we relate fertility rates (average number of children born per woman) with age groups, we find that as the age group increases, the fertility rate decreases. If population growth is to be controlled, marriage of females (in rural and urban areas) is to be preferred in 21-23 or 23-25 age groups than in 15-18 or 18-21 age groups.

3. High Illiteracy:
Family planning has a direct link with female education, and female edu­cation is directly associated with age at marriage, general status of women, their fertility and infant mortality rate and so forth. According to the 1991 census, the overall literacy percentage in India is 52.11 as com­pared to 43.56 ten years ago. The male literacy percentage is 63.86 while the female literacy percentage is 39.42 (India, 1992:9).

Education makes a person liberal, broad-minded, open to new ideas, and rational. If both men and women are educated, they will easily understand the logic of planning their family, but if either of them or both of them are illiterate, they would be more orthodox, illogical and religious-minded.

This is evident from the fact that Kerala which has the overall literacy rate of 90.59 per cent and female literacy rate of 86.93 per cent (in 1991) has the lowest birth rate (22.4 per thousand) while Rajasthan’s appallingly low female literacy rate of 20.84 per cent (in 1991) gives rise to the third highest birth rate in the country (36.4%), the highest having been regis­tered in Uttar Pradesh (37.5%), followed by Madhya Pradesh (37.1%). These statistical figures hold good for most of the other states too.

Similar questions