Disparity in child population ratio

Greater awareness needed on Census, says YV Anuradha Visakhapatnam: "The drastic decline in the child population ratio among the country's population is alarming. The present percentage of child population is 9.01 in some areas and which was even seven per cent in some other areas against 12.2 per cent and 14 per cent in the previous Census. It is due to late marriages, education, employment and other social indicators by which time the fertility zone crosses and everybody shall have to think of the future generation," observed Director of Census Operations YV Anuradha. She was delivering the keynote address at a workshop jointly conducted by the Population Research Centre and the Department of Economics, Andhra University, in association with the Directorate of Census Operations, Andhra Pradesh, here on Tuesday. Ms Anuradha said as far as India was concerned, Census was important, unique and gigantic and one need not have the demographic knowledge. "Though the complete census data linking to various social parameters is loaded in computers using latest technology, we never see it due to lack of time, lack of awareness and interest. Everyone must go through the data and appreciate the good work done as it would help governments to chalk out future plan of action with regard to implementation of welfare programmes and budgets required," she said. The earlier Census had helped the State government in delimitation of Assembly and Parliament segments and it also throws light on future social indicators and modernisation, she said. Referring to the basic civic amenities, the director said despite there being a lot of scope for providing civic amenities, it was lagging behind because of excess inflow to urban places from rural areas and consequently, the rural population was declining. As far as Andhra Pradesh was concerned, she said the Census data was quite interesting as the gender ratio was at a higher scale all over the country, but poor in Hyderabad due to religious customs and artificial birth control. Unless the public cooperates with the enumerators, correct information could not be ascertained as Census was very important for the country to plan its future, she said and asked every citizen to read the population data of 2011. In his inaugural address, Andhra University Rector Prof. AV Prasada Rao said that Census was nothing but acquiring and computing data of population relating to several parameters like social status and strength of SCs, STs, BCs and minorities to plan for welfare programmes and strategies. Census taking, which began in 1872 and the last 2011 Census being the 15th, has an impact on the economic parameters of the society, he added. Population Research Centre honorary director Prof. R Ramakrishna said the country's population as per the 2011 Census was about 121 crore of which 69 per cent was in rural areas and 31 per cent in urban areas. He said the 2011 Census showed that child sex ratio was declining and the general sex ratio increasing. He said data dissemination on houses, household amenities and assets Census of India-2011 was very important to bring awareness among the public. Head of the Department of Economics, AU, Prof. SKVS Raju, spoke on how the department was related to the Population Research Centre and explained the importance of Census taking and the responsibility of the citizens.