India s population hits 1. 2 billion, set to overtake China

Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 November 1999 05:00 Friday, 01 April 2011 11:08

NEW DELHI : India s population has grown 181 million over the past decade to 1. 21 billion, officials said Thursday, confirming projections that put it on track to become the world s most populous country. Registrar General and Census Commissioner C Chandramouli said provisional results of the latest census showed a 17. 64-per-cent increase from the 2001 headcount.

The population growth was, however, slower than the previous count, which showed a 21. 5-per-cent increase from 1991 to 2001. With 623. 7 million males and 586. 5 million females, India s population accounted for 17 per cent of the world population and was bigger than the combined populations of the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan and Bangladesh. India s population was on track to overtake China s, currently the world s most populous country at 1. 34 billion people, by 2025, according to the US Census Bureau.

India gains an average of 18 million people every year compared with China s 6. 3 million, surveys have shown. India s attempts to control its population growth have not been as successful as China s, which introduced a one-child policy in 1978. The government runs family-planning campaigns to persuade couples to stick to two children, but their success is limited, particularly in rural and isolated areas.

An alarming finding of the 2011 census was the increase in the preference for sons over daughters. Over the past decade, the girl-boy ratio dropped to 914 girls for 1,000 boys aged 6 and below from 927 for every 1,000 in the previous census, the PTI news agency reported. Despite the implementation of laws against foetal sex determination, female foeticide is widespread in India. Several cases of female infanticide are also reported from various parts of the country every year.

Courtesy: Business Recorder