The Hindu : Front Page : India's population is 102.8 crores

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 11, 2004

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Front Page

India's population is 102.8 crores

By Gargi Parsai

Actress and social worker Nandita Das (centre) gestures during the ``Save the girl child campaign'' on the eve of World Population Day in New Delhi on Saturday. — PTI

NEW DELHI, JULY 10. India's population has reached 102.8 crores with 53.2 crore males and 49.6 crore females at an annual growth rate of 1.94. On the eve of Population Day, the Registrar-General of India, J.K. Banthia, declared that India's population was all set to exceed China's by 2035 when it would touch 146 crores. India turned 100 crores in May 2000.

The 2001 census shows Uttar Pradesh to be the most populous State with a population of 166 million, followed by Maharashtra (97 million), Bihar (83 million) and West Bengal (80 million). Lakshadweep has the lowest population of 61,000.

The Scheduled Caste population has touched 16.6 crores (16.2 per cent) and the Scheduled Tribes 8.4 crores (8.2 per cent). The child sex ratio (0-6) slipped from 945 females per 1000 males in 1991 to 927 in 2001. The average literacy rate for above seven population stood at 64.8 against 52.2 in 1991. The census said 75.2 per cent of the male population against 53.6 per cent of females are literate.

Releasing the final Census 2001 statistics here at a seminar on Census Data Dissemination, the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, said the census 2001 results were important because the basic population data including that of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, were being used for a fresh delimitation of the Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies. The last delimitation exercise was based on the 1971 census data.

Mr. Patil said the Government was considering implementation of the Multi-Purpose National Identity Card (MNIC) to facilitate Government interface with citizens.

Already, a pilot project was on in 13 States and the Union Territories covering a population of 30 lakhs. The Citizenship Act, 1955 was recently amended to provide for the compulsory registration of all citizens and provision of national identity cards to them.

The idea was to create a National Population Register which will have both, the National Register of India Citizens and the Register for Non-Citizens (National Register of Residents). "Every person will be given a unique national identity number. But the success of the programme would depend on timely and complete updating of the registers which depends on total registration of births and deaths.''

Registration of births and deaths was made compulsory three years ago, but certain State Governments, with a weak demographic record, lacked the commitment to carry it out. Only about 60 per cent of births and 50 per cent of deaths were registered in the country.

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