India People And Economy Chapter 1 Population - Distribution, Density, Growth And Composition

A.

1028 million

A.

West Bengal

B.

Maharashtra

B.

Indo-Aryan

The pleasant climate attracts the people to live in the regions on the other hand the very hot and dry climate are unfavourable for human settlement. These areas are also lack of other basic facilities such as irrigation and economic development.
That is why these areas have low density of population.

Bihar and Sikkim have very percentage of rural population.

Reasons :
(i)These states lack industrial development.

(ii)Their economy largely depends on agriculture.

The work participation rate are higher in the states of lower levels of economic development since numbers of manual workers are needed to perform the subsistence or near subsistence economic activities.

The agricultural sector has the largest share of Indian workers. About 58.2% of total working population are cultivators and agricultural labourers, whereas only 4.2% workers are engaged in household industries and 37.6% are other workers including nonhousehold industries like trade and commerce, construction and other works.

The reasons:
(i) Government has failed to provide employment making people to fall back upon agriculture.
(ii)The other sectors have not fully developed in the country.

The Occupational Structure:

(i)The occupational composition of India’s population, which actually means engagement of an individual in farming, manufacturing trade, services or any kind of professional activities shows a large proportion of primary sector workers compared to secondary and tertiary sectors.
(ii)About 58.2 percent of total working population are cultivators and agricultural labourers, whereas only 4.2% of workers are engaged in household industries and 37.6 % are other workers including nonhousehold industries, trade, commerce, construction and repair and other services.
(iii)As far as the occupation of country’s male and female population is concerned, male workers outnumber female workers in  all the three sectors.
(iv)The number of female workers is relatively high in primary sector, though in recent years there has been some improvement in work participation of women in secondary and tertiary sectors.
(v)It is important to note that the proportion of workers in agricultural sector in India has shown a decline over the last few decades. Consequently, the participation rate in secondary and tertiary sector has registered an increase. This indicates a shift of dependence of workers from farm-based occupations to nonfarm based ones, indicating.

Most populous states are: 
(i)Uttar Pradesh
(ii)Maharashtra,
(iii)Bihar
(iv)West Bengal. 

Physical factors: 
(i)As far as the physical factors are concerned, it is clear that climate along with terrain and availability of water largely determines the pattern of the population distribution.
(ii)Consequently, we observe that the North Indian Plains, deltas and Coastal Plains have higher proportion of population than the interior districts of southern and central Indian States, Himalayas, some of the north eastern and the western states.
(iii)However, development of irrigation (Rajasthan), availability of mineral and energy resources (Jharkhand) and development of transport network (Peninsular States) have resulted in moderate to high proportion of population in areas which were previously very thinly populated.

Growth of population is the change in the number of people living in a particular area between two points of time. Its rate is expressed in percentage.
Population growth has two components namely;
(i)natural 
(ii)induced

Population composition is a distinct field of study within population geography with a vast coverage of analysis of age and sex, place of residence, ethnic characteristics, tribes, language, religion, marital status, literacy and education, occupational characteristics, etc.

The religious composition of India:
(i)Hindus are distributed as a major group in many states, ranging from 70 - 90 per cent and above except the districts of states along IndoBangladesh border, Indo-Pak border, Jammu & Kashmir, Hill States of North-East and in scattered areas of Deccan Plateau and Ganga Plain.
(ii)Muslims, the largest religious minority, are concentrated in Jammu & Kashmir, certain districts of West Bengal and Kerala, many districts of Uttar Pradesh , in and around Delhi and in Lakshadweep. They form majority in Kashmir valley and Lakshadweep.
(iii)The Christian population is distributed mostly in rural areas of the country. The main concentration is observed along the Western coast around Goa, Kerala and also in the hill states of Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Chotanagpur area and Hills of Manipur. Sikhs are mostly concentrated in relatively small area of the country, particularly in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.
(iv)Jains and Buddhists, the smallest religious groups in India have their concentration only in selected areas of the country. Jains have major concentration in the urban areas of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra, while the Buddhists are concentrated mostly in Maharashtra. The other areas of Buddhist majority are Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh in Jammu & Kashmir, Tripura, and Lahul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh.
(v)The other religions of India include Zoroastrians, tribal and other indigenous faiths and beliefs. These groups are concentrated in small pockets scattered throughout the country.

The age groups are examined below:

(i)Young Population : Population below 15 years of age.

(ii)Adult Population : The population between the age of 15 to 59 years of age group. It is also called working age groups.

(iii)Old Population : It is over 60 years.

(i) Female participation rate is about 20%.

(ii) The work participation rate of males is approx. 50%.

(iii) The combined participation rate is approx. 37-38%.

The population of India according to their economic status is divided into three groups, namely;
(i)main workers
(ii)marginal workers 
(iii)non-workers.

The National Youth Policy has been designed to look into the overall development of our large youth and adolescent population.

The language families are mentioned below:

(i)Indo-European family (Aryan) 
(ii)Dravidian family 
(iii)Austric family,
(iv)Sino-Tibetan family

Indo-Aryan language is spoken by the largest number of population about 73%.

The states in which this language (Hindi) is spoken are:

(i) Uttar Pradesh
(ii)Haryana
(iii)Madhya Pradesh.

The growth rate of population in India over the last one century has been caused by annual birth rate and death rate and rate of migration and thereby shows different trends.

In 1881.

1028 million.

Growth of population is the change in the number of people living in a particular area between two points of a time.

313 persons per sq. km.

Aryan.

In 2003.

22%.

Socio-economic and historical factors:
(i)Among the socio-economic and historical factors of distribution of population, important ones are evolution of settled agriculture and agricultural development; pattern of human settlement; development of transport network, industrialisation and urbanisation.
(ii)It is observed that the regions falling in the river plains and coastal areas of India have remained the regions of larger population concentration.
(iii)Even though the uses of natural resources like land and water in these regions have shown the sign of degradation, the concentration of population remains high because of an early history of human settlement and development of transport network.
(iv)On the other hand, the urban regions of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Jaipur have high concentration of population due to industrial development and urbanisation drawing a large numbers of rural-urban migrants.

The four different phases of population growth in India are explained below:
(i)Phase I : The period from 1901-1921 is referred to as a period of stagnant or stationary phase of growth of India’s population, since in this period growth rate was very low, even recording a negative growth rate during 1911-1921. Both the birth rate and death rate were high keeping the rate of increase low.
Poor health and medical services, illiteracy of people at large and inefficient distribution system of food and other basic necessities were largely responsible for a high birth and death rates in this period.
(ii)Phase II : The decades 1921-1951 are referred to as the period of steady population growth. An overall improvement in health and sanitation throughout the country brought down the mortality rate. At the same time better transport and communication system improved distribution system. The crude birth rate remained high in this period leading to higher growth rate than the previous phase. 
(iii)Phase III : The decades 1951-1981 are referred to as the period of population explosion in India, which was caused by a rapid fall in the mortality rate but a high fertility rate of population in the country. The average annual growth rate was as high as 2.2 per cent. It is in this period, after the Independence, that developmental activities were introduced through a centralised planning process and economy started showing up ensuring the improvement of living condition of people at large. Consequently, there was a high natural increase and higher growth rate.
(iv)Phase IV : In the post 1981 till present, the growth rate of country’s population though remained high, has started slowing down gradually.
A downward trend of crude birth rate is held responsible for such a population growth. This was, in turn, affected by an increase in the mean age at marriage, improved quality of life particularly education of females in the country.

They are:
(i)Tibeto – Myanmari
(ii)Siamese-Chinese

The causes:

(i)rapid fall in the mortality rate 
(ii)It is in this period, after the Independence, that developmental activities were introduced through a centralised planning process and economy started showing up ensuring the improvement of living condition of people at large.
(ii)Consequently, there was a high natural increase and higher growth rate. Besides, increased international migration bringing in Tibetans, Bangladeshis, Nepalies and even people from Pakistan contributed to the high growth rate.

The factors are:
(i)Poor health and medical services 
(ii)illiteracy of people at large
(iii)inefficient distribution system of food and other basic necessities 

(i) U.P. has the highest index of concentration with about 16%.

(ii) The biggest state is Rajasthan with about 10.4% of India's total area.

(iii) Maharashtra has the closest relationship between its area and population.

Of the total 1027 million persons of the country, according to the census of  2001, 72% live in rural areas and 28% live in urban areas.

(i) Muslims : Jammu & Kashmir

(ii) Jains : Rajasthan, Gujrat and Maharashtra.

Growth of population is the change in the number of people living in a particular area between two points of time.

Third (III) phase of growth of population :

(i) The decades are 1951-1981 .

(ii) This is the period of population explosion in India .

(iii) It was caused by a rapid fall in the mortality rate but a high fertility rate of population in the country.

(iv) It is in this period, after the Independence, that developmental activities were introduced through a centralised planning process and economy started showing up ensuring the improvement of living condition of people at large.

Density of population, is expressed as number of persons per unit area.

The occupational structure of India’s population:

(i) The population of India according to their economic status is divided into three groups, namely; main workers, marginal workers and non-workers.

(ii) It is observed that in India, the proportion of workers (both main and marginal) is only
39.8 per cent (2011) leaving a vast majority of about 60 per cent as non-workers.

(iii) The proportion of working population, of the states and Union Territories show a moderate variation from about 39.6 per cent in Goa to about 49.9 per cent in Daman and Diu.

(iv) The work participation rate tends to be higher in the areas of lower levels of economic development since number of manual workers are needed to perform the subsistence or near subsistence economic activities.

(v) The occupational composition of India’s population (which actually means engagement of an individual in farming, manufacturing trade, services or any kind of professional activities) shows a large proportion of primary sector workers compared to secondary and tertiary sectors.

Kerala

Rajasthan.

Urban population grows as a result of natural increase (when birth rate exceeds death rate), net immigration (when people move in than out), and sometimes reclassification of urban areas to encompass formerly rural population settlements.

Population density is closely related to physical and socio-economic factors-

Dense population in UP, West Bengal, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Kerala is due to flat and fertile plains, favourable climate, water availability and socio-economic factors.

Moderate density is seen in Odisha, Assam, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu etc. due to possibilities of agriculture, industrial development and favourable climate to some extent.

Sparse population of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, North-East States is due to hilly terrain, dense forests and harsh climate. Rajasthan has water shortage and its hot & dry climate accounts for low population density.

 Favourable factors for Transport network, industrialization, urbanization in Maharashtra, Goa, Delhi NCR etc. account for high population density. 

Human development is defined as the process of enlarging people's freedoms and opportunities and improving their well-being. Human development is about the real freedom which means that people must be healthy, be able to develop their talents, participate in society and be free to achieve their goals.The human development concept was developed by economist Mahbub ul Haq.

People migrate in large numbers from rural to urban areas in India because of

a) Pull factors: New employment opportunities, better health and education facilities, high standard of living.

b) Push factors: Poverty, overburdened agriculture, natural disasters (drought and floods).