CHANDIGARH:As part of the ‘Census Data Dissemination’ activity, a two days workshop was organized by the Directorate of Census Operations, Punjab in collaboration with Department of Centre for Census Studies and Research (CCSR), Punjabi University, Patiala with fund support from UNFPA.
- Punjab organized census data dissemination workshop
- Male-female literacy gap reduced by 9.7 percentage
- Punjab’s population increased by 13.9% during 2001-2011
Divulging the details, a spokesman of state government said that Dr. Jaspal Singh, Vice Chancellor, Punjabi University, Patiala presided over the inaugural ceremony and Smt. Seema Jain, IAS, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology and Environment, Government of Punjab and Director Census, Punjab presented the keynote address. The Vice Chancellor observed that Census slogan “Our census Our Future” is befitting and impressed upon that census data should be used for the welfare of common people. A publication entitled ‘Primary Census Data Highlights’ was also released at this occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Smt. Seema Jain said that Census is the most comprehensive source of information for use by the government departments, educational institutions, voluntary organizations, corporate houses, academicians, research scholars and individual data users both within and outside the country.
She said as per jurisdictional set up finalized for Census there are 20 districts, 77 tehsils, 217 towns (out of which 143 have statutory status and 74 are census towns) and 12,581 villages. Pathankot and Fazilka districts have been created after Census 2011 and our effort would be to compile primary census data for these newly created districts also in near future.
Giving population profile of the state, she said that Punjab’s population has increased by 13.9% during 2001-2011 and this decadal growth is the lowest since 1961. Scheduled caste population in the state comprises 31.9% of the total population. Ludhiana is the most populous district and accounts for 12.6% of the total population while Barnala is the least populous district and shares 2.2% of the state’s population.
Urban component of Punjab population has increased from 33.9% in 2001 to 37.5% in 2011 and is relatively more urbanized part of the country. All the districts in Punjab have recorded an increase in percentage of urban population and this increase is the most significant in SAS Nagar, from 38.3% in 2001 to 54.8% in 2011. Ludhiana is the most urbanized district with 59.2% of its population residing in urban areas. SAS Nagar, Amritsar, Jalandhar districts are also predominantly urban having more than one-half of their population as urban. Tarn Taran district with 12.7% is the least urbanized district in the State. More than one-fourth of urban population is concentrated in two million + cities namely, Ludhiana and Amritsar.
Describing the rural scenario, she highlighted that 23.5% are small sized with a population of less than 500 and contain 4.5% of Punjab’s rural population; 55.1% are of average size in the population range of 500-1999 and account for 42.0% of rural population; 18.3% have population in the range 2000 – 4999 and comprise 38.1% of rural population of Punjab is residing in these villages. Besides, 371 villages are large sized with a population of 5000 and more and 15.4% of the rural population is concentrated in these villages. Noticeably, within this group of large sized villages, 41 have a population of more than 10,000 and majority of them (30) are located in Malwa, 10 in Majha and one in Doaba region.
During 2001-2011, sex ratio has improved by 19 points (from 876 to 895) and child sex ratio by 48 points (from 798 to 846). Male-female literacy gap has reduced by 9.7 percentage points. There is perceptible shift from agricultural sector to non- agricultural sector of economy. The percentage of agricultural workers (cultivators + agricultural workers) has decreased to 35.5% from 38.9% in 2001 and non-agricultural workers increased to 64.4% from 61.1%. In fact, among the major states, the percentage of ‘other workers’ in Punjab at 60.5% is the second highest, next only to Kerala at 80.5%.
In this training programme the inaugural address was delivered by Dr. H.S. Bhatti, Director CCSR. In this Sh. K.S. Bhatnagar, Joint Director, Dr. B.B. Jain Research Officer, Sh. Bhagirath Singh Deputy Director and team from the DCO, Punjab guided the participants to use the Census Info software, which would be informative and useful for the academicians and research scholars. For more details one can visit at www.punjabcensus.gov.in andwww.censusindia.gov.in