BPSC 70th CCE Prelims General Studies · Question 85 of 143

Correct — B, 918. In Indian census usage the sex ratio is the number of females per 1,000 males, and Census 2011 records Bihar's overall sex ratio as 918. Two comparisons make the figure meaningful rather than a floating number. Against the country: the all-India sex ratio in 2011 was 943, so Bihar sits 25 points below the national figure. Against itself over time: Bihar stood at 919 in 2001, so the state effectively stood still — down one point — during a decade in which India as a whole improved from 933 to 943. That combination, a national rise alongside a flat state figure, is the substance of the fact and the thing a follow-up question is most likely to test. Note also what makes Bihar demographically distinctive apart from this ratio: it had 10,40,99,452 people in 2011, the third largest of any state after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, and the highest population density of any state at roughly 1,106 persons per square kilometre. And note the discipline this question quietly demands — the ratio must be attached to the right unit and the right year. Neighbouring values in the same census belong to other states, Gujarat at 919 and Uttar Pradesh at 912; and 933, the largest option here, is a real census figure but a national one from ten years earlier.

• (a)916 — A two-point near-miss below the correct figure, and it exists to punish approximate memory. On a question where all four options lie within seventeen points of each other, 'about nine hundred and twenty' is not knowledge; the census figure for Bihar in 2011 is 918 exactly.
• (c)922 — A four-point near-miss above the correct figure, built the same way. It is also the sort of number a candidate may reach for after remembering that Bihar improved in some census indicators between 2001 and 2011 — but the sex ratio was not one of them, since it slipped from 919 to 918.
• (d)933 — The only option that is a real published figure, which is exactly what makes it dangerous — 933 is the ALL-INDIA sex ratio of Census 2001. A candidate who has stored 933 without its label will read it as a plausible state value. The national figure for 2011 is 943, and Bihar's is 918.

The Census of India reports the sex ratio as females per 1,000 males — the reciprocal of the convention used in many other countries, which is worth remembering because it means a HIGHER Indian figure is the more favourable one. Three related ratios are asked about and must be kept apart: the overall sex ratio; the CHILD sex ratio, computed for the 0-6 age group, which is the indicator most sensitive to sex selection and which fell nationally between 1991 and 2011 even as the overall ratio improved; and the sex ratio at birth, which comes from the Sample Registration System rather than from the census. The all-India series shows a long decline through the twentieth century, bottoming in the 1990s, and a recovery in the last two censuses: 927 in 1991, 933 in 2001, 943 in 2011. Kerala has consistently been the only large state with more women than men. Census 2011 was the fifteenth census of India and the seventh since Independence, counting about 121 crore people; the census due in 2021 was not conducted, which is why 2011 remains the latest census data for every one of these ratios.

Numerical census questions are won by storing figures in pairs, never singly, because the distractors are always built from the neighbouring member of the pair. For this item the pairs are: Bihar 918 against India 943, and Bihar 2011's 918 against Bihar 2001's 919. Hold those and the paper cannot mislead you — you will recognise 933 immediately as the national figure from the previous census rather than as a candidate for Bihar. A second habit that helps is to know which way each Bihar indicator points relative to the country, because BPSC asks all of them: Bihar is BELOW the national average on sex ratio, WELL ABOVE it on population density at about 1,106 against India's 382, and among the lowest states on urbanisation, at roughly 11 per cent against about 31 per cent for India in 2011. If you can say for each indicator whether Bihar is above or below the national figure, you can sanity-check any option before committing to it. One caution about revision material: figures for Bihar's Census 2011 literacy rate are printed inconsistently in secondary sources, so if the question is about literacy rather than sex ratio, work from a primary census table rather than from a compilation.

• Bihar's sex ratio in Census 2011 was 918 females per 1,000 males, against 919 in Census 2001 — effectively flat over the decade
• The all-India sex ratio was 943 in 2011, up from 933 in 2001 and 927 in 1991, so Bihar fell further behind the national trend
• Bihar's population in 2011 was 10,40,99,452 — third among states after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra
• Bihar had the highest population density of any state in 2011, roughly 1,106 persons per square kilometre against an all-India figure of about 382
• Bihar is among the least urbanised states, with an urban share of about 11.3 per cent in 2011 against about 31.2 per cent for India as a whole
• Census 2011 was the fifteenth census of India and the seventh since Independence; the census due in 2021 was not conducted, so 2011 remains the latest census figure for every one of these indicators

• Marking 933, which is the all-India figure for 2001 and not a Bihar figure at all
• Reading the sex ratio as males per 1,000 females — the Indian census convention is the reverse, so a higher number is better
• Assuming Bihar improved because India improved; India rose from 933 to 943 while Bihar slipped from 919 to 918

BPSC asks census indicators as bare three-digit recall with options a few points apart, which makes approximate memory worthless and makes the paired figure — state against nation, or this census against the last — the only reliable defence. UPSC almost never asks a single state's ratio; it asks which states hold the extremes, or presents three statements about a census and asks which are correct, so the UPSC version tests the shape of the distribution while the BPSC version tests the digit.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  As per Census 2011, the sex ratio for India as a whole was

  • (a)927
  • (b)933
  • (c)940
  • (d)943

  Answer(d) 943 — up from 933 in 2001 and 927 in 1991; Bihar's own figure in 2011 was 918.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which State recorded the highest population density in Census 2011 ?

  • (a)West Bengal
  • (b)Bihar
  • (c)Kerala
  • (d)Uttar Pradesh

  Answer(b) Bihar — about 1,106 persons per square kilometre, well above the all-India figure of about 382, with West Bengal next among the states.