NDA (II) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 117 of 146

Correct — C, Meghalaya—Manipur—Mizoram—Tripura. Sex ratio in the Indian census is the number of females per thousand males. On the 2011 figures Meghalaya leads this group at 989, Manipur follows at 985, Mizoram comes next at 976 and Tripura is last at 960, which is exactly the order printed in option (c). All four are comfortably above the national figure of 943, which is one reason the north-eastern states are grouped together in questions of this kind, and the gaps between them are small — only twenty-nine points separate the top of the list from the bottom.

• (a)Mizoram—Manipur—Tripura—Meghalaya — It puts Meghalaya last when Meghalaya is in fact the highest of the four, and lifts Mizoram to the top. It also places Tripura above Meghalaya, reversing a gap of twenty-nine points.
• (b)Tripura—Manipur—Meghalaya—Mizoram — This begins with Tripura, which has the lowest sex ratio of the four at 960, and ends with Mizoram at 976. The two ends of the order have been exchanged.
• (d)Manipur—Meghalaya—Tripura—Mizoram — The top two are very close, so putting Manipur first is a near miss rather than an absurdity — 985 against Meghalaya's 989. The option is nonetheless wrong twice over, because it also drops Mizoram below Tripura when Mizoram's 976 is the higher of the two.

The census reports sex ratio as females per thousand males, and reports it separately for the whole population and for children aged 0 to 6, the child sex ratio. The two can point in opposite directions, and in the north-east they often do. Manipur, for example, has an overall ratio of 985 but a child sex ratio of only 930, while Meghalaya's overall 989 sits alongside a child figure of 970. Reading the wrong column is the commonest way to get a question like this wrong.

Four states, four positions, and the safest route is to fix the two ends rather than to recall the whole sequence. Tripura at 960 is clearly the lowest of the group and Meghalaya at 989 the highest, and that pair alone eliminates options (a), (b) and (d). It is worth knowing that the Manipur figure is sometimes printed as 992 rather than 985, the difference tracing to whether three sub-divisions of Senapati district, whose count was set aside, are included. Either figure keeps Manipur above Mizoram and Tripura; only 985 places Meghalaya first, which is what the key requires. As a present-day note, these remain the latest available census figures — the count due in 2021 was repeatedly postponed and the next enumeration is scheduled for February 2027.

• On the Census 2011 figures Meghalaya stands at 989, Manipur at 985, Mizoram at 976 and Tripura at 960, against an all-India figure of 943.
• Kerala has the highest sex ratio among Indian states at 1084, the only state above a thousand.
• Child sex ratios for the same four states differ sharply from the overall figures — Meghalaya 970, Manipur 930, Mizoram 970, Tripura 957.
• The 2011 census is still India's most recent completed census; the 2021 round was postponed and population enumeration is now scheduled for February 2027.

• Quoting the child sex ratio in place of the overall sex ratio; Manipur's two figures differ by fifty-five points.
• Assuming the whole north-east has similar ratios; the four states here spread over twenty-nine points and Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh sit lower still.
• Reading sex ratio as males per thousand females, which inverts every comparison.

Asked as a ranking item where locating the highest and the lowest of the four states removes every wrong option.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Indian State recorded the highest sex ratio in Census 2011?

  • (a)Tamil Nadu
  • (b)Kerala
  • (c)Meghalaya
  • (d)Andhra Pradesh

  Answer(b) Kerala — at 1084 females per thousand males it is the only state above a thousand; Meghalaya's 989 leads only within the north-east.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the Indian census, the sex ratio is expressed as

  • (a)males per thousand females
  • (b)females per thousand males
  • (c)females per hundred males
  • (d)the percentage of females in the population

  Answer(b) females per thousand males — which is why a figure above 1000, as in Kerala, means women outnumber men.