India is showing a relative decline in the population among childhood ages with the fertility graph declining in the country in the last ten years. However, India has a young population, according to the recently published Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI).
It said that 27 per cent of the population comes in the 0-14 age group, 61 per cent in the working age population of 15-59 group and 12 per cent in the elderly group (60 years and above).
The study noted that proportion of children in the age group 0-4 is nine per cent in rural areas and seven per cent in urban regions.
The LASI is a national survey of the health, economic, and social determinants and consequences of population ageing in India.
Overall age dependency ratio is 62 per 100 working-age population. It is higher in rural areas.
The study showed that Kerala (20 [per cent), Himachal Pradesh (17 per cent), Tamil Nadu (16 per cent), Puducherrry (16 per cent) and Goa (15 per cent) had higher percentage of elderly people. Meanwhile, Arunachal Pradesh had the lowest six percent of elderly people. The LASI said that the proportion of elderly people was less than the national average of 13 per cent in 15 states/Union territories.
31 per cent of females and 16 per cent of males never attended school
With respect to sex ratio, the report said it was 984 females per 1000 males. The ratio was higher in rural areas (996) compared to urban areas (964). It said that the sex ratio for elderly was 1065. Urban region had a higher (1084) ratio than rural region (1055) in favour of females.
SOME FINDINGS
- Mean household size is 5.7 persons per household.
- Sixty nine percent of females and 84 percent of males have attended school
- Kerala has the highest literacy rate (96%), followed by Mizoram (94%), Lakshadweep (93%), and Chandigarh (89%),
- Uttar Pradesh has the lowest literacy rate (72%) followed by Andhra Pradesh (71%), Telangana (67%), and Bihar (66%).
- 80 per cent of the surveyed household heads are Hindu, 14 percent Muslim, three percent Christians, two percent Sikhs and two percent Buddhist/Jain/Jewish/Parsi.
- Female headship is lower in the north Indian states of Bihar (16%), Uttar Pradesh (14%), Rajasthan (13%), Chhattisgarh (13%), Jharkhand (10%), and Madhya Pradesh (10%), with the lowest in Jammu & Kashmir (5%).
- Death rate is higher in the states of Himachal Pradesh (9.5), West Bengal (9.2), Uttarakhand (8.6), Manipur (8.5), Jharkhand (8.4), Odisha (8.3), and Madhya Pradesh (8.3).
- The death rate for the elderly (60 years and above) is 38.4 deaths per 1000 population.
