Given a highly complex relation spanning the demographic and socio-economic variables, it is difficult to work out the relationship in both ways. So, focus is kept narrow to show how the process of development in Arunachal Pradesh has produced the main demographic outcomes: changes in fertility, mortality and migration.
The main topics covered in this chapter are:
(1) size and density of population,
(2) distribution of population,
(3) composition of population,
(4) migration, and
(5) population growth.
Size and Density of Population
Arunachal Pradesh has a small population: only 13.84 lakh (according to 2011 census) which is 0.107 per cent of the country’s population of 1.23 billion. In North-east India (excluding Sikkim which has a population of 5.40 lakh) only Mizoram’s population (8.91 lakh) is smaller than Arunachal Pradesh’s. With a hilly and mountainous topography, the State has a very sparse settlement, so sparse that its density of population is lowest in the country. According to 2011 census, the population density in Arunachal Pradesh is only 17 people per sq km against the country’s 325.
With a high growth of population, the density has increased in the State over time but the expanding population has not spread evenly. It is the river valleys and urban areas which have got the highest concentration of population. The remote areas of the State remain more or less as thinly-populated as before. It may be pointed out that the first population census was conducted in the State in 1961. Prior to 1961, the administrative infrastructure was too inadequate to conduct census in the State. In the absence of census and other evidence it is not possible to quantify the State’s population prior to 1961.
Distribution of Population
Arunachal Pradesh has a highly uneven distribution of population. The plains which constitute only five per cent of the area of the State have a relatively dense settlement. We would discuss two aspects of distribution of population: inter-district and rural-urban.
Inter-district Distribution
Some districts of Arunachal Pradesh have large areas. As many as 10 districts of this State are larger in area than Goa, the smallest State in the country and five districts are bigger in area than Sikkim, the smallest State in North-east India. In terms of population among the 16 districts, Changlang is the largest and Dibang Valley the smallest. Kurung Kumey and Upper Siang have also a low density. There are eight districts with a density higher than the State’s average.
Rural-Urban Distribution
Urbanisation is relatively new in Arunachal Pradesh; prior to 1971 there was no urban population. In 1971 census, for the first time, four administrative centres were counted as urban. The population in these towns was 17 thousand forming 3.70 per cent of the State’s population of 4.68 lakh. The average population in these urban areas was about four thousand, so small that the settlements counted as urban were more like overgrown villages than towns. However, the tempo of urbanisation increased over time. During the 1970s the urban population grew at 13.96 per cent per annum. By 2001, there were 17 towns and 20.75 per cent of the population was urban. Papum Pare, the district in which the capital of the State is located, has the highest level of urbanisation, 50.85 per cent, and Upper Siang has no urbanisation at all.
Population Composition
Scheduled Tribes and General Category
The first category is scheduled tribes (ST) and the second is non-scheduled tribe (non-ST). We do not take into consideration another category, scheduled caste (SC) because this category constitute only 0.56 per cent of the State’s population. Moreover, they are not considered to be indigenous and hence, treated like the people of the general category. In 1961, the ST category formed the overwhelming majority of the population (88.67 per cent), and the nonST only 11.33 per cent. The relative size of the non-ST category, however, increased in subsequent years. In 1991, this category became as high as 36.34 per cent of the total; in the 1990s its relative size, however, declined, reaching 35.78 per cent of the population in 2001.
The non-tribal population in Arunachal Pradesh is not evenly distributed; their presence is more in the urban than in the rural areas. Kurung Kumey, a hilly district with no urban areas, has the lowest percentage of the non-tribal population. At the other end is Lohit, a district with extensive plains bordering the Brahmaputra valley of Assam, has the highest concentration of the non-tribal population (67.58).
Sex Ratio
The overall sex ratio of Arunachal Pradesh is not comparable with that of other states because of a large migration. As we have seen before, 35.78 per cent of the population in Arunachal Pradesh belongs to general category most of whom are either migrants from other states or descendants of the migrants. A look at the sex ratio of the general category gives us an impression of gender-bias in the migration.
In 1961, the migrants were largely males: sex ratio of the general category was only 296. Over the years the sex-bias in migration declined. The sex ratio of the general category increased to 723 in 2001. However, it is neither the overall sex ratio nor the sex ratio of the general category that represents the true gender composition; it is the sex ratio of the ST population that portrays the true picture. This is because of the ST people being more or less closed.
The ST sex ratio shows a clear declining trend from 1961 to 1991. However, it was more than 1000 in all censuses except in 1991 when it dropped to 998. Compared with the overall gender composition of the country, Arunachal Pradesh’s is much more favourable to the women. In 1961 the sex ratio of the ST population in the state was 1013 against the countrys 941. In 2001, ST sex ratio was 1003.
Literacy in Arunachal Pradesh
In the spread of education, Arunachal Pradesh occupies a unique position in the country. At the time of Independence in 1947, there were very little formal educational facilities. After 1947 there was a rapid expansion of the educational facilities. The first college in the State was established in 1964 and after 20 years a university came into being. Literacy spread rapidly in the State, given its very poor base.
In 2011, Arunachal Pradesh had a literacy rate of 65.38 per cent . The male literacy was 72.55 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh while female literacy stands at 57.70 %.
Migration
The implementation of the development programmes launched by the Government of India after Independence occasioned a growing stream of migration from the rest of the country. The forces of modernisation which swept the rest of the country did not touch Arunachal Pradesh. Most of the people were dependent on swidden cultivation (jhuming).
Nature of Inter-State Migration:
Immediately after Independence almost all government officials from the highest rank to the lowest came from outside to establish direct administration in an area which had seen only ‘indirect’ or ‘political’ administration without any public offices being located here. The local people accustomed to jhuming could not supply any labour power. The only way was to depend on migrants from the rest of the country. Given the nature of development work, most of the migrants were unskilled. But what is considered raw or unskilled labour in the rest of the country appeared highly skilled in Arunachal Pradesh. For example, an agricultural labourer is considered unskilled in the plains but in Arunachal Pradesh he became an ‘expert’ in wet-rice cultivation.
Population Growth
In Arunachal Pradesh population started growing after 1947. Prior to Independence, there was no modern hospital nor was there any modern industry in the State. A low-productive agriculture, the total absence of industrial activities outside the household, almost total illiteracy kept the pre-1947 Arunachal Pradesh in the same demographic regime as the rest of the country was prior to 1921. So the ‘great divide’ for Arunachal Pradesh can be taken to be 1947, after which its population took a path of high growth shaped by both natural increase and migration.
During 1961-2001, the population grew in the State at the average exponential rate of 2.98 per cent per annum compared with the national growth of 2.14 per cent. The ST population grew at the rate of 2.12 per cent while the non-ST grew at a much higher rate of 5.83 per cent. There was a high decadal variation in the growth rate.
In the 1970s the rate of growth fell markedly but in the 1980s a reversal took place. In the 1970s the fall in the overall growth was due to the sharp fall in the growth of the tribal population. In the 1960s the tribal population in the State grew at 2.13 per cent per annum but in the 1970s the rate declined to 1.78 per cent. Since the trajectory of the population growth shifted upwards after the launch of the development programmes and the consequent migration.
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