Jharkhand’s preference for the male child has increased over half a decade, as revealed by the skewed child sex ratio highlighted in census results as on March 1, 2011.
Releasing the data, director of census operations in Jharkhand Sunil Kumar Barnwal said, “This is the final data of Census-2011 and it can be used in its present form for policy-making, research or any other purpose with full authority.”
As on March 1, 2011, for every 1,000 male children between 0 to 6 years of age, the number of female child in the same age group was around 948, a decline of 17 points from 2001.
Interestingly, acceptance of daughters among the rural population was more than their urban counterparts. While the ratio in rural areas declined by 16 points, it fell 22 points in urban areas of Jharkhand. The sex ratio in rural and urban areas, according to Census 2011, stood at 957 and 908, respectively.
Census 2011 found child population in the age group of 0 to 6 years at 53,89,495, which includes 43,67,507 children in rural and 10,21,988 in urban areas.
Among the socially marginalised part of the population, while Scheduled Castes (SC) have seen a rise of 0.3 per cent since last census, Scheduled Tribes witnessed a decrease of 0.1 per cent over the same period.
Out of a total population of 39,85,644 SCs, 31,52,863 live in rural areas while the corresponding figure for urban areas stands at 8,32,781.
Sons of the soil STs, whose population stood at 86,45,042 in Census-2011, constitute 26.2 per cent of total population of Jharkhand. As many as 78,68,150 STs reside in rural and 7, 76,892 reside in urban areas of Jharkhand.