Census counts armed forces among JK’s 1.25 crore population!

Srinagar:  In a surprising development, the provisional 2011 Census report released on Thursday has included paramilitary and army personnel among Jammu and Kashmir’s population pegged at 12548926, an increase of 2405226 in the last 10 years.“The population includes everyone who was here when census was carried from 09 to 28 February last,” according to Farooq Ahmad Faktoo, chief principal census officer of the state.However, he refused to divulge the exact number of the forces, saying that they don’t keep separate number but that of total population in the state. “The total population of the state has increased to 1.25 crore with 66.65 lakh males and 58.83 lakh females,” he said.He said the decadal variation in population as per the provisional census is 23.90 percent.Significantly, the population of the Kashmir Valley has gone up to 70 lakh while that of the Jammu region is around 53 lakh. The population in the Ladakh region is 2.80 lakh.As per the provisional data, Anantnag district has registered a highest growth rate at 38.48 followed by Ganderbal (36.30), Kupwara (34.62), Ramban (31.81), Pulwama (29.18), Rajouri (28.14), Poonch (27.97), D0da (27.89), Reasi (27.06), Bandipora (26.31), Shopian (25.85), Leh (25.48), Srinagar (23.56), Budgam (21.18), Kishtwar (21.06), Udhampur (20.86), Kathua (20.38), Baramulla (20.34), Kargil (20.18), Samba (16.90), Jammu (12.48) and Kulgam at 7.30.”The population density per square kilometre is 124 while the sex ratio is 892. The density was 100 per square kilometre in 2001 and the sex ratio was 886,” Farooq Ahmad Faktoo, chief principal census officer of the state, said.The state has registered a crucial increase in the literacy rate as well. The literacy rate stands at 68.74% compared to 55.52% in 2001.”The literacy rate among the males is 78 percent while it is 58 percent among the females,” the officer said.Kupwara district in north Kashmir has registered highest literacy rate 23.67% from 2001 while Srinagar, the summer capital of the state, has lowest 8.08 %. While literacy rate in Kupwara has gone from 43.25% in 2001 to 66.92, Srinagar has 63.13% in 2001 to 71.21%.    Interestingly also, there has been a drastic fall in child sex ratio as per the provisional census data.”The child sex ratio (0 to 6 years of age) has fallen from 941 in 2001 to 859 in 2011 in the valley while the state’s overall sex ratio has been pegged at 883 females per 1,000 males, indicating a fall of nine points compared to 2001 census,” the principal census officer said.The census was done in two phases, first phase related to house listing, and the second phase to population enumeration. In the snowbound areas of Leh and Kargil, both the house listing and population enumeration operations were taken up simultaneously,” Faktoo said.”At least 27,500 enumerators and supervisors were trained for the census operation. We covered 21 lakh households, including institutional households like hostels and jails,” the official said.The officials also informed that Paper-II and III of the census report will be released subsequently.