Chapter 1

POPULATION : Distribution Density , Growth & Composition

FACTS THAT MATTER

•India is 2nd after China in total population (1,210 million, 2011) in the world.

•India's population is larger than the total population of North America, South America and Australia put together.

Distribution of Population

•India has highly uneven pattern of population distribution. Uttar Pradesh has the largest share of population followed by Maharashtra, Bihar and West Bengal. These states along with Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Gujarat account for 76% of total population of the country. In contrary Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have small share of population though they have large area.

Factors Affecting Distribution of Population:

•Physical Factors: Climate along with terrain and availability of water largely determines the pattern of population distribution. Northern Indian plains, coastal plains - deltas have higher concentration because of favourable physical factors unlike the mountains and deserts areas of our country where it is either too cold or too warm/dry.

•Socio-Economic, Historical Factors: Evolution of settled agriculture and agricultural development, pattern of human settlement, development of transport network, industrialization and urbanization are significant factors in determining population distribution.

People settle in areas with favourable terrain, soil, climate, access to water (Ganga plains), minerals, industries (mining and industrial towns) and urban centres where conducive factors for settlement are available.

Density of Population

•It is expressed as number of persons per unit area.

•It helps in getting a better understanding of the spatial distribution of population in relation to land. Density of population in India is 382 persons/sq km (2011).

But it varies widely in the states from 17 p/sq. km in Arunachal Pradesh to 11, 297 p/sq. km in the NCT, Delhi. Bihar has the highest density with 1102 p/sq. km. The hilly/rugged/desert areas have relatively low density due to terrain and harsh climate. Density is a crude measure of human and land relationship.

•To get a better insight into the human land ratio in terms of pressure of population on total cultivable land, the physiological and agricultural density are noted.

Physiological density = Total population/Net cultivated area.

Agricultural density = Total agricultural population/Net cultivable area

•Agricultural population includes cultivators and agricultural labourers and the family members.

Growth of Population

•It is the change in the number of people in an area between two points of time, rate is expressed in percentage. Natural and Induced are its two components. Natural growth is analysed by assessing the crude birth rate and death rate while the induced components are explained by the volume of inward and outward movement of people (migration). The annual G.R.(Growth Rate) of Indian population is 1.64%. There are four phases of population growth in India (201l).

(a) Phase I: 1901-1921 - Period of stagnant of growth.

Growth rate was low-even recorded a negative growth rate during 1911-1921 Both the Birth rate (BR) and Death rate (DR) was high-leading to low growth rate during this period. Poor health and medical services, illiteracy and ineficient distribution system of food and other necessities were responsible for low growth rate.

(b) Phase II: 1921-1951 - Period of steady growth. Crude birth rate (C.B.R.) remained high but death rate came down - leading to an increase in population. Improvement in health and sanitation facilities, transport system and distribution systems were mainly responsible.

(c) Phase III: 1951-1981 Period of population explosion. This was caused by rapid fall in mortality rate but high fertility rate. Post independence the development activities through planning helped to improve living conditions leading to high growth rate. Apart from this, international migration' was also responsible bringing immigrants from other countries.

(d) Phase IV: Post 1981 till present.

Growth rate has started showing a declining trend. Decrease in C.B.R. - due to an increase in mean age at marriage, improved education especially.

Regional Variation in Population Growth:

The states of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Goa - have low rate of growth (20%).

•A belt of states from West and East of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab,

Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar have high growth rate of population (20-25%).

•During 2001 -2011 growth rate of almost all states registered a lower rate compared to the previous decade.

Adolescent Population (10-19 years): in India adolescent population is about 20.9% (2011) of which Male-52.7%, Female-47.30. They have high potential - but should be guided in the right direction-as they are vulnerable

•Government of India has certain policies to impart proper education to channelise them in the right direction-to empower them and make them responsible, decisive citizens

•National Youth Policy, 2014 launched in February 2014 proposes a holistic vision for the youth of India, which is "To empower the youth of the country to achieve their full potential, and through them enable India to find its rightful place in the community of nations." The NYP-2014 has defined youth as persons in the age group of 15-29 years.

Population Composition

•It is the field of study with coverage of age, sex, residence, ethnic characteristics, tribes, language, religion, literacy and education, marital status, occupational characteristics, etc.

Rural Urban Composition

•Compositions of population by their place of residence is an important indicator of socio-economic status of a country.

•In India 68.8% live in the villages. Bihar or Sikkim have high percentage of small population. Goa and Maharashtra have almost 50% living in the urban areas.

•Union Territories have has smaller percentage of rural population (except Dadra and Nagar Haveli. It has 53.38% of rural people).

•Distribution of rural population reveals that both at Intra and Inter state levels, the oh&relative degree of urbanisation and extent of rural-urban migration regulated the be concentration of rural people.

•Urban population has increased in almost all the states & Union Territories as a it result of development in socio-economic conditions and rural-urban migration.

•Urban population is high along the main transport links in the North Indian plains, the industrial areas of Kolkata, Mumbai and other areas.

•It is low in the agriculturally stagnant areas of middle and lower Ganga plains, Telangana, non-irrigated western Rajasthan, remote hilly areas, desert, flood prone areas of Peninsular India, etc.

Linguistic Composition

•As per linguistic survey of India (1903- 1928), there were 179 languages and 544 dialects in India. In modern India, there are about 22 scheduled languages and many non-scheduled languages.

•Hindi has the highest percentage of users and the smallest language groups are Kashmiri and Sanskrit. Linguistics regions do not maintain a sharp boundary, rather they merge gradually with each other.

•The speakers of major Indian languages belong to four languages families with their sub families & branches.

Religious Composition

•Religion affects the cultural and political lives of most Indians.

•The spatial distribution of religious communities shows that certain states have more people following a particular religion while the same religion may be represented negligibly in other states.

•Hindu (70%-90%) form a major group in many states except the borders along Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tibet (China) and in some scattered areas within the country

•Muslim, the largest religious minority are mainly in Jammu Kashmir, Ladakh, some districts of West Bengal, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and in the NCT of Delhi and Lakshadweep

•Christians are most concentrated in the rural areasof Chotanagpur, Hills of

Manipur, Goa, Kerala, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, etc.

•Sikhs are concentrated in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.

•Jains and Buddhists - form the smallest religious groups and are concentrated in selected areas. Jains in urban areas of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra while the Buddhists in Maharashtra, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Tripura, Lahul and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh.

•Other religions of India Zoroastrians, tribal and other indigenous faiths and beliefs.

Composition of Working Population

According to economic status, Indian population is divided into:

(a) Main workers: who works for at least 183 days in a year

(b) Marginal workers: who works for less than 183 days or 6 months in a year.

(c) Non workers: who do not work.

Workers (both main and marginal) are only 39.8% of the population. Thus 60% remain as non-workers. Thereby leading to an increase of dependent population.

Spatial Variation: The work participation rate is higher in the areas of lower economnic development since more labour is required to do primary subsistence activities.The states with larger percentage of workers are Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Nagaland, Manipur and Megalaya.

Occupational Composition:

•It shows a large proportions of primary sector workers compared to secondary ana tertiary sectors.

•54.6% - cultivators and agricultural labourers

•3.8%- in household industries •41.6%-other workers, non household industries, trade, commerce, construction and repair etc.ls ea

•The male workers out-number females in all the three sectors. workers are relatively more in primary activities though it is changing.

•Proportion of workers in agricultural sector has shown a decline over the years- 54.6% in 2011 with a corresponding increase in the other two sectors giving rise to a sectorial shift in the economy from farm based activities to non farm based activities.

Spatial variation of work participation rate:

•It is very wide in the country in different sectors.

•Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland have large share of cultivators.

•Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal-have higher proportions Of agricultural labourers.

•Union Territories like Chandigarh, Puducherry, NCT of Delhi are home of people in services reflecting upon (a) lesser availability of farming land and (b) Large scale urbanization and industrialisation.

We hope CBSE/MP Board Class 12th "Geography Part B " Chapter 1 "Population: Distribution, Density and Growth , Composition" will help you.

Written By - HIMANSHU SHARMA