The Demographic Structure of the Indian Society – CBSE Notes for Class 12 Sociology
• Demography—the systematic study of the population of a country, area, community, etc. The term is of Greek origin and is composed of the two words, demos (people) and graphein (describe).
• There are two types of demography—
1. Formal Demography: statistical analysis of population i.e., total population, number of males, number of females, number of youth, working population, rural urban (quantitative data)
2. Social Demography: birth rate, death rate and migration that happens in a particular society.
• Consists of four processes .
(i) Demographic Structure: number of people in an area,
(ii) Demographic Processes: birth rate, death rate, migration,
(iii) Social structure: composition of an area,
(iv) Social processes: Processes by which individuals learn to live together in peace and harmony in society e.g. Cooperation, accommodation, mediation etc.
• Formal demography is to do with statistics, numbers, aggregates. The memorial quantification of data.
• Social demography is concurred with changes or the consequences of the population of a society and how it affects us.
The Malthusian Theories of Population Growth
• Malthusian Theory was propounded by Thomas Robert Malthus.
• According to him there are two important things that matter.
(i) Population – People
(ii) Means of substance – land (agriculture)
• According to him population can grow uncontrollably. It grows in ‘geometric progression’ (2, 4, 8,16, 32, 64 …). It is fast.
• Land gives limited return. It grows in arithmetic progression (2,4,6,8,10 ). It is slow.
As a result there is an imbalance in society.
• Population is growing uncontrollably, land is not able to sustain the large population which leads to poverty, hunger, saturation etc.
• Malthus came up with 2 solutions.
— Positive check: Natural disasters cause many people die and the population is naturally controlled. If one doesn’t take care of themselves nature will take care of them e.g. earthquakes, tsunami.
— Preventive check: Man made e.g. late marriage, celibacy, contraceptives etc.
Criticism of Malthusian Theory
• According to sociologists, poverty, hunger etc is not due to less agricultural growth but due to unequal economic resources.
• Agricultural production is not limited due to the advancement of science and technology.
• Along with population growth, there is an increase in the standard of living. This is because of science and technology.
Theory of Demographic Transition
• Population is moving from underdeveloped to developed countries.
There are three stages—
1. Primitive Stage-underdeveloped countries (Africa).
2. Second Stage-developing countries (India, Pakistan) stage of transition —> countries are moving from underdeveloped to developed.
3. Third Stage-Developed countries (USA, UK).
Underdeveloped Countries (stage 1)
• Birth rate is high since people are unaware of the advantages of having small families, they are not educated.
• Death rate is also high since health and medical facilities are not available. Therefore population is low.
Developing Countries (stage 2)
• Birth rate is high as we live in a patriarchal society where men decide how many children – must be bom and male child is preferred.
• Illiteracy and people are ignorant.
• Death rate is also low since health and medical facilities are available. Therefore population is high and results in population explosion.
• Demographic Divident when the working population increases more than the non working population.
Developed Countries (stage 3)
• Birth rate is low, people are educated and aware and use contraceptives, birth control is popularised.
• Death rate is also low because of availability of health and medical facilities. Therefore population is low.
Population Explosion: When the birth rate of a country is high and the death rate is low because of availability of health and medical facilities.
Therefore population is exploding, increasing.
Common Concepts of Population
1. Birth Rate: Number of live births per thousand population.
2. Death Rate: Number of deaths per thousand population. Also called mortality rate.
3. Rate of natural increase: Difference between birth rate and death rate in an area.
• Replacement Level: Present generation replaces the previous/older generation.
• Zero level: Replacement is same. Same number of people replace same number of older generation called stabilised level (parents replaced by 2 children).
• Negative level: Number of people replacing older generation are less (parents . replaced by child).
• Population explosion: Number of people replacing the older generation is more. Working population is more than the dependant population.
4. Fertility Rate: Number of live births between the age of 15-49 yrs per thousand women.
5. Total Fertility Rate: Number of women who give birth to children in a particular area at a particular age (15-49 yrs) .
6. Infant Mortality Rate: Number of infants who have died below the age of 1 per thousand live births.
7. Maternal Mortality Rate: Number of women who die during child birth per thousand population.
8. Life expectancy Rate: Number of years that one is expected to live as determined by statistics may be individually qualified by the person’s condition, race, sex, age or other demographic factors.
9. Sex Ratio: Number of females per thousands males.
10. Age structure: The structure of the population in terms of age (in India 0-15 —» youth, 15-65 -> Working population, above 64 years-dependant population)
11. Dependency Ratio: The number of people who are not working and are dependent on the working population.
12. Ratio of the dependent population to the working population is higher.
13. Demographic Dividend: When the working population in a country is more than the dependent/non working population.
14. Positive: Economic growth for the country although it is a temporary phase.
Size and Growth of India’s Population
• Today the population of India is very high but it has not always been high. Growth has been up and down.
Causes:
(a) Epidemics
(b) Natural Disasters/Famine
• Epidemics: Disease which is widespread and affects lakhs of people in a large area. For example, during the World War there spread the Spanish influenza. It affects the throat and cavity and you choke and die. It is believed to have killed more people than any war.
• It spreads very fast and is contagious because:
(i) Sanitation conditions were very bad.
(ii) Medical facilities were low.
(iii) Soldiers moved from place to place and spread it,
(iv) Chemical explosion/fumes in the air.
• They are less common now because
(a) Better medical facilities.
(b) There are vaccinations.
(c) Sanitary conditions have been improved.
(d) Awareness of people have increased.
• In India we still have some epidemics like swine flu, chickenguniya, plague, malaria etc.
• Famine: There is scarcity of food, shortage of food supply and production.
It is of two types
1. Natural: excessive rainfall, no rainfall, drought.
2. Manmade: excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers, lack of transport and communication facilities, distribution of grain by government is not sufficient and proper preventive method should be taken.
• Dr. Amartya Sen, “It is not necessary that famine is due to lack of food grain but it could be due to lack of efficient distribution, failure of entitlements and inability of people to buy or otherwise obtain food.”
It can be controlled by
Efficient distribution of foodgrains by improving transportation and community, (it) Green Revolution has increased the supply of foodgrains despite varying amounts of rainfall.
(iii) Medical facilities—If an area is experiencing famine, the government takes caution/ measures to see that the people are given help.
• NREGA-National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: Takes care to see that everyone is employed so that if there is a famine they can move somewhere else and buy food. Total Fertility Rate
– When the birth rate is high and death rate is low it results in population explosion.
– In a country birth rate is still high because of:
(i) Mindset of people
(ii) Desire for male child
(iii) Patrilineal society
Replacement Level
• Kerala and Tamil Nadu: Zero/stabilised level due to literacy.
• Uttar Pradesh: Very high replacement level (4:1); it can be good increase in youth population.
Low Fertility Rate
• Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh (Mostly northern states due to desire for male child).
Age Structure of Indian Population
• 0-15 years – Youth Population
• 15-64 years – Working Population
• Above 64 years – Old/Retired Population
• Demographic Dividend: Working population is higher than the non-working population.
• Kerala: Good age structure —> increase in working population, the literacy rate is very high, so they are educated about economic growth.
• Uttar Pradesh: Increase in working population because of large working youth population, decreasing aged population.
• Demographic Dividend can be maintained by better education, awareness etc. Advantage-current working population is large and it has a relatively small aged population to support.
The Declining Sex Ratio in India
• Number of females per thousand males of a population.
• Child sex ratio-Number of girls per thousand boys.
• Sex ratio has always been a concern in India.
Reasons for declining sex ratio:
(i) Mindset of the people
(ii) Neglect of girl child
(iii) Female foeticide/infanticide
(iv) Maternal mortality rates-women die during child birth.
• The child sex ratio is still very scary as there is a drastic fall.
• Prosperous states such as Punjab and Haryana have maximum female infanticide and down with burning because
— Dowry is very high and parents want to save money.
— People want only 2 or 3 boys, therefore when they get a girl, they kill it and have a boy.
• Sonography: to know the sex of the child.
• The Pre Natal Diagnostic Technique Act/Regulation and Prevention of Misuse Act which came up in 1996 and was later enforced in 2003.
• This does not allow the sex of the child to be known.
Literacy
• Literacy is the ability to read or write.
• Education is a combination of formal and informal education.
• Kerala has the maximum literacy rate whereas Rajasthan and Northern states have low literacy rate.
• There are three categories:
(i) Gender: more males are literate to females but it is becoming higher.
(ii) Social Group: higher income families have more literacy level than those with lower income families. Govt is trying to bridge the gap through reservation for SC’s and ST’s.
(iii) Regions: Kerala has high literacy level as compared to Rajasthan, Bihar which have low literacy level.
Rural-Urban Differences
• There is migration from rural areas to urban areas as there are better job opportunities etc.
• 68.8% of our population still lives in rural areas.
• Though agriculture is the main activity in rural areas, there are many non agricultural activities, such as post office, teaching, small businesses, transport and communication.
• Reasons for migration from rural to urban areas:
— Mass media is responsible for making the rural area aware of the urban area and one of the causes of migration from rural to urban.
— Many resources of the rural areas is being taken away. Such as rivers drying up, land due to construction is making them move to urban areas.
— In urban areas there is anonymity and no one cares about caste etc.
— People who are not educated can pick up any job they like in urban areas.
• Metropolis: City with infrastructure and the suburbs are different.
• Megapolis: City with infrastructure and the suburbs are included, for example, NCR.
Population Policy of India
• In 1952 the National Family Planning Programme (NFPP) was introduced.
• It tried to influence the rate and pattern of population in socially desirable direction.
• Its objectives were:
— Population should be controlled and awareness should be spread in a way which is socially desirable.
— Control the birth/reduce birth rate through birth control methods.
• During emergency by Indira Gandhi (1975-76)
— All fundamental rights are taken away.
— Press was censored.
— Anybody could be put in jail without a trial.
— Mass sterilization programme was introduced by Sanjay Gandhi, the younger son of the then prime minister of India Mrs. Indira Gandhi to control population.
— In this tubectomy was performed for women and vasectomy for men was conducted in a very haphazard manner.
— All government teachers, doctors were under a lot of stress due to the mass sterilization camp.
— It was renewed as National Family Welfare Programme (NFWP).
— In this people could only be sterilized if the people agree to do it and their signature was needed.
Words That Matter:
1. Age Structure: The proportion of persons of population in different age groups related to the total population. It includes all age groups like children, youth and old people.
2. Agricultural density: Ratio between people and arable land.
3. Arithmetic density: Ratio between people and land.
4. Birth Rate: Number of live births per 1000 population for a given time period and for a particular place.
5. Census: Official examination of population alongwith certain economic and social statistics in given territory and carried out or a specific way. It bears decodal frequency.
6. Death Rate: Number of deaths per 1000 population for a given time period and for a particular place.
7. Density of population: Number of people occupying a certain area and their ratio in any country, region or state viz. Number of people living on one square kilometre of land.
8. Dependency Ratio: Number of dependent population over working population.
9. Economic Density: Ratio between people and the availability of economic resources of any region, state or country.
10. Fertility Rate: Refers to the number of live births per 1000 women in the child bearing age groups usually taken to be 15-49 years.
11. Infant Mortality Rate: Number of deaths of babies before the age of one year per thousand live births.
12. Life expectancy: Refers to the estimated number of years that an average person is expected to survive.
13. Literate: From the point of view of census the person who can read and write any language is a literate.
14. Maternal Mortality Rate: Number of women who die in child birth per 1000 live births.
15. Negative Growth Rate: This happens when fertility levels are below replacement level such as Japan, Russia, Italy.
16. Rate of Natural Increase or Growth Rate of population: This refers to the difference between the birth rate and death rate.
17. Replacement Level: When the difference is zero then we say that the population has stabilised or has reached the ‘replacement level’, which is the rate of growth required for new generations to replace the older ones that are dying out.
18. Sex Ratio: Number of women per 1000 of men population.
19. Total Fertility Rate: Number of children born upto child bearing years of a women.
