Planning dept to study and act on State census data

Fine-tuning of health and adult education programmes indicated

“When 15 districts could achieve single digit population growth rate, why not the other districts. Several districts have recorded below the national average literacy rates. These are matters of policy importance and we will explore the reasons”, Sanjeev Kumar, principal secretary, Planning Department said.

He said there were several matters of concern, including literacy levels in certain districts falling below that of the state of Bihar.

‘Introspection’

“All aspects will be discussed at various levels. There will be introspection and if necessary fine-tuning of health and adult education programmes will be done”, the officer said.

The female literacy rate is below 60 per cent in eight districts of the State- Bagalkot, Bellary, Koppal, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Chamarajnagar, Raichur and Yadgir.

An interesting aspect that has come out of the Census 2011 is many districts including relatively backward districts like Tumkur, Chamarajnagar, Chitradurga and Gadag achieving single digit decadal population growth rate, he added.

While pointing out that the data is yet to studied in detail, Prof Gita Sen of Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) said single growth rate in these districts could be the fallout of the State having reached replacement fertility in 2006. Replacement fertility means each couple having only two children (exactly replacing themselves over time). However, while the growth rate starts to decline, population will continue to grow for some time.

“Even if each couple has only two children, the number who still have to marry and have families is large. Because of this larger base, the population will continue to grow for some time even at replacement level fertility”, explains Sen adding that it was a matter of time before all districts achieved single digit growth rate.

 Prof K S James, of the Population Research Centre, Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC) felt the need to review programmes like Bhagyalakshmi that was introduced three years ago, given the child sex ratio continuing to decline.
“Bhagyalakshmi scheme was primarily targeted to improve the child sex ratio. But that does not seem to be happening in the State”, he said.

The State witnessed a decline of sex ratio (0-6) by three points in the last decade. Perceptible decline in sex ratio (0-6) was witnessed in Chamarajnagar (-22), Davangere (-15), Raichur (-15), Chitradurga (-13) and Haveri (-12).

He said the high growth rate recorded by Bangalore was due to migrant population seeking job opportunities in the State capital. Bangalore urban district recorded a whopping growth rate of 46 per cent during the last decade. “The migrant population seeking employment is largely male and explains the skewed sex ratio in Bangalore (908 females to 1,000 males)”, James added.