Known for its adverse sex ratio, Punjab has shown improvement while the State’s agrarian economy has shown shift to non-agricultural sector.
During 2001-2011, the State’s sex ratio improved by 19 points from 876 to 895 and child sex ratio by 48 points from 798 to 846, said Punjab Director Census Seema Jain.
Speaking at a workshop organized by the Directorate of Census Operations in collaboration with Department of Centre for Census Studies and Research (CCSR), Punjabi University, Patiala, Jain said that during the past decade, from 2001 to 2011, there is perceptible shift from agricultural sector to non-agricultural sector of economy.
“The percentage of agricultural workers, that is cultivators plus agricultural workers, has decreased to 35.5 per cent from 38.9 per cent in 2001 and non-agricultural workers increased to 64.4 per cent from 61.1 per cent,” she said. In fact, among the major States, the percentage of ‘other workers’ in Punjab at 60.5 per cent is the second highest, next only to Kerala at 80.5 per cent, she pointed out.
Giving State’s population profile, she said that Punjab’s population has increased by 13.9 per cent during 2001-2011 and this decadal growth is the lowest since 1961. she added that the Scheduled Caste population in the state comprises 31.9 per cent of the total population.
Punjab’s industrial town ludhiana is the most populous district and accounts for 12.6 per cent of the total population while Barnala is the least populous district and shares 2.2 per cent of the State’s population.
Urban component of Punjab population has increased from 33.9 per cent in 2001 to 37.5 per cent in 2011 and is relatively more urbanised part of the country.
All the districts in Punjab have recorded an increase in percentage of urban population and this increase is the most significant in SAS Nagar (Mohali), from 38.3 per cent in 2001 to 54.8 per cent in 2011, Jain pointed out, adding that ludhiana is the most urbanised district with 59.2 per cent of its population residing in urban areas. SAS Nagar, Amritsar, Jalandhar districts are also predominantly urban having more than one-half of their population as urban, and Tarn Taran district with 12.7 per cent is the least urbanised district in the State.
More than one-fourth of urban population is concentrated in two million plus cities — ludhiana and Amritsar.