What is the sex ratio in Bihar as per the Census 2011 of India ?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

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.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) 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) 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) 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.

Concept: 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.

State PCS 2024 Q85 — Geography PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2024 Q85 — Geography PYQ with Answer