Goa tops the states in terms of a composite index of the social, economic and demographic indicators compiled by the National Commission on Population (NCP). Pondicherry comes in second followed by Kerala, Chandigarh and Tamil Nadu.
Jharkand is at the bottom of the list with an index of 38.27, preceded by Bihar and Rajasthan. Eranakulam district in Kerala recorded the highest composite index value of 88.48 while the Balrampur district in UP recorded the lowest value index of 25.05.
Hundred and sixty-eight districts with index value of less than 46 are concentrated in the states of Rajasthan, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.
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The better performers with an index value greater than 67.3 are concentrated in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Madhya Pradesh projects a mixed picture with the southern districts doing very well and the northern districts reporting indices less than 46.
The NCP today released a report on the district-wise position in respect of various indicators including the decadal growth rate, percentage of births of order 3 or more, current users of family planning methods, percentage of girls marrying below 18 years, percentage of villages not connected by pucca roads and with access to safe drinking water.
The report ranks districts in the country separately for 11 indicators for which data could be compiled and on the basis of a composite index.
At a meeting to release the report, Krishna Singh, Member Secretary of the NCP also said that various incentives and disincentive schemes adopted by state governments are broadly within the framework of incentives and disincentives outlined in the national population policy.
As demographic problems in different states vary considerably, it is only natural that there cannot be any uniformity relating to the policies and programmes for population stabilisation between states, she said.
The report shows that nearly half the districts in the country witnessed an above average decadal growth of population and that the majority of these districts are in states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The highest growth rate for a district was 95.01 per cent for Wokha in Nagaland.
133 districts in the country, with 35 per cent of the population, have a total fertility rate (TFR) greater than 3.5, and only 48.1 per cent of the couples in the country use family planning methods.
The report also states that while for the coutnry as a whole, about 36.8 per cent girls marry below the age of 18 years. In large states like UP, Bihar, MP and Rajasthan around 50-60 per cent of girls are married before 18 years.
Also, only 41.9 per cent of the deliveries were attended by trained persons in the country as a whole, leading to high levels of maternal and infant mortality and only 53.3 per cent of the childred in the country received full immunization.
The report also assigns indices to districts based on the percentage of villages not connected with pucca roads and the percentage of habitations having access to safe drinking water.