Population
Growth Falls More in Sikkim
(Marchang Reimeingam*)
Sikkim
contributes only 0.22 percent in the total geographical areas of India.
However, only 0.050 percent, which has declined from 0.053 in 2001, of India’s 1.21
billion people resides in the state according to the latest data of census of
India. Its density of population has substantially increased from 57 in 1991 to
76 in 2001 and further increased to 86 in 2011. Eventually, population was
growing rapidly at 32.98 percent, a decadal growth rate, during 1991-2001;
however, it has slowed down to a considerable rate at 12.36 percent during
2001-2011. The same trend was prevalent at the national level that the growth
rate has declined from 21.34 to 17.64 percent during the same period respectively.
The declined in Sikkim is too drastic as compared to the national level. Is it
because of the dearer cost of living? The period of 1991-2001 that showed a
high growth might have caused by migration towards the state because of
industrial as well as developmental work expansions. Possibly, it might have
also greatly attracted due to the liberalization, privatization and
globalization. Some explainable factors, for the slow growth in the latter
decade, could be self restraining to migrate towards the state as the possible
reasons for migration such as developmental as well as industrial work
expansion are not expanding to an extent compared to the previous decade,
out-migration for higher education, search of jobs etc may also be increasing, lower
birth rate due to lower infant mortality rate, etc.
According to
the Sample Registration System the estimated birth rate has declined from 21.6
to 18.1 per one thousand populations from 2001 to 2009 for Sikkim; whereas for
national level it has declined from 25.4 to 22.5 in the same period. The figure
shows a lower birth rate for the state because of the lower death rate. The
death rate was 5.1 per one thousand populations for the state as compared to as
high as 8.4 at the national level in 2001. As the health care facilities
improves along with the wider spread of education and knowledge the death rate
has decline at the national level to 7.3 in 2009; however, ironically, the rate
has increased for the state to 5.7 in the same period. Mortality prevalence was
apparently higher for males than females particularly in urban areas; and also
considerably higher in rural areas than urban areas. These are some situations
to prioritize while planning in Sikkim. For example in 2009, it was higher for
males (6.1) than females (6.0) in rural areas; similarly, it was significantly
higher for males (4.8) as compared to females (2.9) in urban areas. The higher mortality
prevalence in rural areas is most likely due to the poorer health care
facilities as compared to the urban health infrastructures. The infant mortality rate, which is an important
indicator of the health status, has recorded a considerable decline from 42 per
one thousand live births in 2001 to 34 in 2009 as a result the birth rate has
also declined in the state. It was much lower for the state than the national
level. This may also explain the improvement of sex ratio in the state.
The latest
census figure showed an improvement in sex ratio touching at 889 in 2011 from
the previous records of 875 in 2001 and 878 in 1991. The ratio of the state was,
unfortunately, very much below the national average of 940, 933 and 927 in the
respective years. It portrays that male child preference seemingly loosening
from the social system; as females are quickly coping up in the educational
contest in line of their male counterparts. Another explanation is that more
number of females has migrated in the recent decade towards Sikkim due to
marriage to the previously migrated males, i.e. a chain migration. Moreover, it
is not astonishing to observe, in the recent decade, that the growth rate of
females was slightly greater as compared to the male population counterpart in
Sikkim, and also at the national level. Last but not least, it was evident that
females literacy rate has remarkably increased, as much as for males, from
about 60.40 percent in 2001 to 76.43 percent in 2011. The sooner the females
attain fully literate the lesser the time it will take time to attain 100
percent literate Sikkim. In result, the overall population growth will further
slowdown, ceteris paribus, and human
development will further improve.
*Faculty, Dept. of Economics, Sikkim
University
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For citation: Marchang Reimeingam, Population Growth Falls More in
Sikkim, Sikkim Express,
Sikkim, 12th July 2011.
