Uttarakhand Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh on Friday released data highlights of the Uttarakhand census report. She said the data would help formulate plans, its execution and evaluation for overall development of the State.

She expressed dissatisfaction at the lower sex ratio in Haridwar, Udhamsinghnagar and other districts. She also congratulated officers and employees who prepared the reports after making door-to-door survey.

Uttarakhand Census director in-charge Dashrath Singh said around 30, 000 employees were deployed for collecting data on indicators, including population, density, SC & ST population, number of literates, number of workers (total, main, marginal), category of economic activity (cultivators, agricultural labourers, household industry workers, other workers and non workers).

According to him, there has been an increase of around 16 lakh persons in Uttarakhand during 2001-2011. Increase among males is around 8.12 lakh while among females it is 7.85 lakh. The growth rate of females (18.9 per cent) is higher than that of males (18.8 per cent). In 2001, the population of Uttarakhand was 8,489,349 lakh while in 2011, the population was recorded at 10,086,292. The rural population has seen an increase of 11.5 per cent while the urban population has registered a growth of 39.9 per cent.

Data shows that Udhamsinghnagar registered the highest growth rate in population with a rise of 33.5 per cent followed by Dehradun at 32.3 per cent, Haridwar at 30.6 per cent  and Nainital at 25.1 per cent. Among tehsils, Kichchha topped with 49.4 per cent population growth followed by Haldwani at 42.4 per cent, Kashipur at 40.2 per cent, Rishikesh at 38 per cent and Haridwar at 37.1 per cent.

On the national level, child population registered a nominal growth of 0.4 per cent in the last decade, while in Uttarakhand it declined by 0.3 per cent. The sex ratio of Uttarakhand has increased by one per cent.

In 2001, the sex ratio was 1000:962 while in 2011, it was recorded at 1000: 963. The lowest sex ratio has been recorded in Haridwar at 1000:880. In 2001, the sex ratio was recorded at 1000:865. The sex ratio of Udhamsinghnagar was recorded at 920 in 2011, while for Nainital it was 934 and for Champawat 980. The sex ratio of Champawat in 2001 was 1021.

The maximum sex ratio was recorded at 1,139 in Almora district followed by 1,114 in Rudraprayag. The highest sex ratio, 1307 was recorded in Bhaikiyasain tehsil, followed by 1297 in Chaukhutiya, 1259 in Dwarahat, 1240 in Sult and 1236 in Chaubattakhal.

The lowest sex ratio was recorded in Joshimath tehsil with 731 women. Bhatwari recorded 869, Chakrata 869, Roorkie 875 and Haridwar 886. The child sex ratio of Uttarakhand was recorded at 890 in 2011 while 2001 it was 908. The lowest sex ratio of child population (0-6) was recorded at 816 in Pithoragarh, 873 in Champawat, 877 in Haridwar district, 889 in Dehradun, 899 in Udhamsinghnagar and 902 in Nainital.      

The sex ratio of child population in Uttarakhand (890) is lower than the national level (919). The sex ratio of child population has decreased by eight points at the national level and by 18 points in Uttarakhand. The sex ratio of child population has decreased in all the districts of Uttarakhand except Haridwar.

The population of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes has increased by 24.7 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively. The literacy rate of Uttarakhand has increased by 7.2 per cent. In 2001, the literacy rate of Uttarakhand was 71.6 per cent while in 2011 it was 78.8 per cent. The male and female literacy in 2011 was 87.4 and 70.0, respectively in the Uttarakhand.

The highest literacy rate was recorded at 89.19 per cent in Nainital tehsil followed by 88.60 in Srinagar, 88.22 in Dehradun and 87.15 in Pithoragarh. The lowest literacy rate was recorded at 63.64 per cent in Mori Tehsil, 63.72 in Chakrata, 65.09 in Tyuni, 66.43 in Bajpur and 68.75 in Kalsi.

The work participation rate which has been defined as the number of workers per 100 population was recorded at 38.4 per cent in Uttarakhand.

Hridayesh launches e-payment

In another development, Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh launched online DDO mode for e-payment. Under this scheme, all State government’s payment to employees, pensioners and third parties would be made through e-payment, directly into their bank account.