The Demographic structure of the Indian Society Flashcards
To memorise the keypoints from the whole chapter.
What is Demography?
Demography is the systematic study of population. The term is of Greek origin and is composed of two words, demos(people) and graphene (describe), implying the description of people. Demography studies the trends and processes associated with population including- changes in population size; patterns of births, deaths, and migration; and the structure and composition of the population, such as the relative proportions of women, men, and different age groups.
When did censuses begin in India?
In India, censuses began to be conducted by the British Indian government between 1867-72.
Why are demographic datas important?
Demographic data are important for planning and implementing state policies, especially those related to economic development and general public welfare. Aggregate statistics—or the numerical characteristics of a large collectivity consisting of millions of people—offer a concrete and strong argument for the existence of social phenomena.
What is formal demography?
Formal demography is primarily concerned with measuring and analyzing the components of population change. Its focus is on quantitative analysis, and it has a highly developed mathematical methodology suitable for forecasting population growth and changes in population composition.
What is social demography?
Population studies/social demography enquires into the wider causes and consequences of population structures and change. Social demographers believe that social processes and structures regulate demographic processes; like sociologists, they seek to trace the social reasons that account for population trends.
Define Malthus’ description of the theory of population growth.
Thomas Robert Malthus argued that human populations tend to grow at a much faster rate than the rate at which the means of human subsistence can grow. Therefore humans are condemned to live in poverty forever because the growth of agricultural production will always be overtaken by population growth. While the population rises in geometric progression, agricultural production can only grow in arithmetic progression.
Define the theory of demographic transition.
The theory of demographic transition suggests that population growth is linked to overall levels of economic development and that every society follows a typical pattern of development-related population growth. There are three basic stages of population growth. The first stage is that of low population growth in a society that is underdeveloped and technologically backward. Growth rates are low because both the death rate and the birth rate are very high so the difference between the two is low. The third stage is also one of low growth in a developed society where both the death rate and birth rate have been reduced considerably and the difference between them is small again. Between these two stages is a transitional stage of movement from a backward to an advanced stage, and this stage is characterized by very high rates of growth in population.
Why does population explosion happen?
The ‘population explosion’ happens because death rates are brought down relatively quickly through advanced methods of disease control, public health, and better nutrition.
Define birth rate.
Birth rate is the total number of live births in a particular area during a specified period divided by the total population of that area in thousands. The birth rate is the number of live births per 1000 population.
Define death rate.
The death rate is a similar statistic expressed as the number of deaths in a given area during a given time per 1000 population.
What is rate of natural increase in the growth rate of a population?
The rate of natural increase in the growth rate of a population refers to the difference between the birth rate and the death rate.
What is fertility rate?
The fertility rate refers to the number of live births per 1000 women in the childbearing age group.
What is infant mortality rate?
The infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of babies before the age of one year per 1000 live births.
What is maternal mortality rate?
The maternal mortality rate is the number of women who die in childbirth per 100000 live births. High rates of infant and maternal mortality are an unambiguous indicator of backwardness and poetry; development is accompanied by sharp pitfalls in these rates as medical facilities and levels of education, awareness, and prosperity increase.
What is life expectancy?
Life expectancy refers to the estimated number of years that an average person is expected to survive. It is calculated on the basis of data on age-specific death rates in a given area over a period of time.
What is sex ratio?
The sex ratio refers to the number of females per 1000 males in a given area at a specified time period. Girl babies appear to have an advantage over boy babies in terms of resistance to disease in infancy. At the other end of the cycle, women have tended to outlive men in most societies, so there are more older women than men.
What is age structure of the population?
The age structure of the population refers to the proportion of persons in different age groups relative to the total population. The age structure changes in response to changes in levels of development and the average life expectancy.
What is dependency ratio?
The dependency ratio is a measure comparing the portion of a population which is composed of dependents(i.e, elderly people who are too old to work , and children who are too young to work) with the portion that is in the working age group, generally defined as 15 to 64 years old.
Why has the birth rate not declined as sharply as the death rate? What factors contribute to a gradual decline in the birth rate?
Unlike the death rate, the birth rate has not registered a sharp fall. This is because the birth rate is a sociocultural phenomenon that is relatively slow to change. By and large, increased levels of prosperity exert a strong downward pull on the birth rate. Once infant mortality rates decline, and there is an overall increase in the levels of education and awareness, family size begins to fall.
What factors contribute to the decline in the child sex ratio, and how do modern medical techniques play a role in this issue?
Several factors may be held responsible for the decline in the child sex ratio including severe neglect of girl babies in infancy, leading to higher death rates; sex-specific abortions that prevent girl babies from being born; and female infanticide. Practices of female infanticide have been known to exist in many regions while increasing importance is being attached to modern medical techniques by which the sex of the baby can be determined in the very early stages of pregnancy.
What factors contribute to the rapid growth of urbanization, and how does the decline of common property resources in rural areas influence rural-to-urban migration?
The rapid growth in urbanization shows that towns or cities has been acting as a magnet for the rural population. Those who cannot find work in the rural areas go to the city in search of work. This flow of rural-to-urban migration has also been accelerated by the continuous decline of common property resources like ponds, forests, and grazing lands. These common resources enabled poor people to survive in the villages although they owned little or no land. Now, these resources have been turned into private property.
