First news is good news -- literacy & sex ratio is up

First news is good news -- literacy & sex ratio is up
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, MARCH 26: The number crunching is still on but the first set of results are out. At last count, India had more people, a higher literacy rate and a better sex ratio than in 1991. The provisional results of Census 2001 indicate that India has become the second country in the world after China to cross the one billion mark.

As on March 1, 2001, the population of India stood at 1027,015,247 comprising 531,277,076 males and 495,738,169 females. Between 1991 and 2001, India has added 181 million people to its population, which is more than the estimated population of Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world.

India’s share in world population has gone up to 16.7 per cent even while the country registered a fall in its decadal growth rate by 2.52 per cent and an improvement in its sex ratio and literacy rate.

Releasing the provisional population results of the Census of India 2001 which concluded on February 28, Registrar General and Census Commissioner J. K. Banthia said Uttar Pradesh was still the most populous state, with 16.7 per cent of the country’s population, followed by Maharashtra (9.42 per cent) and Bihar (8.07 per cent).

The number of literate people in the country has also gone up significantly. The corresponding figures for male and female are 75.85 and 54.16 per cent respectively. So today, three-fourth of the male population and more than half of the female population in the country is literate. Also, the gap in male and female literacy rates has decreased.

The most heartening aspect is the absolute number of illiterates has shown a decline for the first time since independence.

Kerala still leads the literacy race, with 90.92 per cent, followed by Mizoram (88.49 per cent) and Lakshadweep (87.52 per cent). Bihar has recorded the lowest literacy rate (47.53 per cent) in the country.

The sex ratio (number of females per 1000 males) is 933 females per 1000 males, which is an improvement of six points over 927 recorded in the 1991 census, Banthia informed. One of the interesting facts that has emerged is that the sex ratio of child population in age group 0-6 has come down to 927 from 945 in 1991. The sharpest decline in sex ratio of the child population has been observed in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttaranchal, Maharashtra and Chandigarh.