India: Population, Migration and Human Development
Domain 8: India - Population, Migration and Human Development
This domain applies population measures to India: distribution, growth, composition, migration and regional development. The exam favours data interpretation and explanations of migration streams.
Core rules
- Census: India's 2011 Census recorded about 1.21 billion people, density 382 persons/km², sex ratio 943 females per 1,000 males and literacy 74.04%. These are benchmark figures, not eternal facts.
- Growth: India is in late Stage III of demographic transition: birth rate falling, death rate low, growth still positive. Population momentum keeps numbers rising.
- Composition: dependency ratio = (population aged 0–14 + 60+) ÷ population aged 15–59 × 100. A high ratio means more dependants per worker.
- Migration: push factors (poverty, drought, unemployment) and pull factors (jobs, education, services). Major streams are rural-to-urban and inter-state labour migration.
- Development: HDI varies widely by state; Kerala and Delhi generally rank high, while some central and eastern states lag. Income alone does not capture health and education.
Worked example
A district has 30% of its population aged 0–14, 60% aged 15–59 and 10% aged 60+. Dependency ratio = (30 + 10) ÷ 60 × 100 = 66.7. This means about 67 dependants for every 100 working-age people. Reasoning: the numerator includes both young and old dependants; the denominator is the working-age group only.
Traps
Do not define sex ratio as males per female; India's census uses females per 1,000 males. Do not treat a falling birth rate as population decline. Do not count all migrants as refugees. Do not use total population as the denominator for dependency ratio.