CENSUS -2011 AND PUNJAB II

The provisional census data released today has come with mixed news for the state. While Punjab can pride itself for showing drastic improvement in its child sex ratio since 2001, it is still amongst the worst performers in the country on this parameter. Though the child sex ratio is low across all districts, situation in the border areas and Malwa region is alarming.
The data, released by state Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal and Director (Census) Seema Jain, shows that the rate of growth of population in Punjab has slowed down during the last decade. From 20.1 per cent in 2001 it has scaled down to 13.7 per cent.
Ludhiana has emerged as the most populous district with 34.87 lakh persons. Amritsar with a population of 24.9 lakh is the second largest districts in terms of population followed by Gurdaspur (22.99 lakh), Jalandhar (21.81 lakh) and Ferozepur (20.26 lakh). None of the other districts has a population of more than 20 lakh. Barnala has the lowest population with only 5.96 lakh people.
The overall sex ratio has increased by 17 points since 2001 and is currently at 893. It is also the highest-ever sex ratio in the state. At the same time, Bathinda district has the lowest sex ratio of 865, down by 5 points since the last census. The child sex ratio has also increased by 48 points across the state and is now at 846. Kapurthala, Jalandhar and Nawanshehar have shown the highest increase in child sex ratio.
Provisional census data has been released on only three parameters - population, gender and literacy. According to Jain, it would take at least six months to tabulate the data. The census was conducted in two phases across 58 lakh households in cities and 12,581 villages across the state.

The highest growth rate of population has been in Tarn Taran, Mohali and Patiala districts. One of the reasons of population growth in Taran Taran could migration from the neighbouring areas on account of it being a new district while Mohali and Patiala districts could have grown due to their proximity to Chandigarh. Interestingly, Tarn Taran has the third highest population growth, but lowest child sex ratio (819).
Literacy in the state has seen an upward trend. Further, gap in literacy between males and females has also reduced. In 1971, Punjab had an overall literacy rate of 34.12 per cent (42 per cent among males and 24 per cent among females). In the current census, the literacy has gone up to 76.7 per cent (81.5 per cent in males and 71.03 per cent among females). Among the districts, Hoshiarpur has the highest literacy at 85.4 per cent, followed by Mohali (84.9), Ropar (83.3), Ludhiana (82.5), Jalandhar (82.4) and Gurdaspur (81.1). Muktsar and Mansa are at the bottom with 60 and 56 per cent literacy, respectively.

The census has also focused on gender and disabilities. Some enumerators had to approach difficult areas along the 553-km border with Pakistan and others had to travel by boat to approach villages cut off by rivers and streams, Aggarwal said.
The census was conducted with the theme "everybody without omission". Special emphasis was laid on vulnerable groups like women, elderly, disabled, infants and homeless. Punjab, like the rest of the country saw a new initiative - "Census in Schools"/ The purpose of this was to make all children aware that the census was taking place and that they have a role in ensuring that the data for their own family is recorded correctly. The programme covered about 60 schools in each district in Punjab and was specifically designed for participation by students of the entire school in general and students of class VI, VII and VIII in particular.