Muslims have largest share of young, but also die early


Census Shows Drop In U-20s In All Communities

Muslims in India have the highest share of children and teenagers (0-19 age group) among all religions, at 47%, compared to 40% for Hindus and just 29% among Jains, according to new Census 2011 data released on Tuesday . If all communities are taken together, around 41% of the country's population is below 20 years old and nine per cent above 60 years, leaving 50% in the intervening 20-59 age group.

Overall, life cycles of different religious communities in India have shown common trends of declining proportion of children and increasing shares of elderly while also showing marked differences in average life span.

The share of the young population has declined since the previous census in 2001 when it was 45% for the whole country , 44% for Hin dus, 52% for Muslims and 35% for Jains. This is a reflection of across-the-board declines in fertility rates --number of children born --leading to a slowing down of the respective population growth rates.

The decline is the least for Hindus and highest for Budd hists and Christians, at seven percentage points, followed by Sikhs and Jains at six percentage points.

At the other end of the life cycle, the proportion of elderly has risen across all communities as life spans have generally increased. The elderly, 60 years and above, make up about nine percent of the country's population.

Across religious communities, there is considerable variation in the share of the elderly population, which can be directly linked to economic status and access to healthcare. In the Muslim community , just 6.4% of the population is over 60 years, almost 50% lower than the national average. In 2001, this share was 5.8%, indicating only a marginal increase. Among Jains, and Sikhs, the share of elderly is 12%, over 30% more than the national average.These shares are more also because the younger generation's numbers are less. The Hindu community is close to all national averages because they make up nearly 80% of the country's population.

Age-wise population shares reveal another important aspect of the lives of people -dependency . Both children and the elderly are dependent on the able and adult population. Overall, the young dependency ratio--number of children aged up o 15 dependent on every 1,000 members of the working age population--has declined from 621 in 2001 to 510 in 2011.This is a direct consequence of declining number of children.

At the other end of life, the old dependency ratio has increased from 131 in 2001 to 142 in 2011, in accord with the growing elderly population.

If we add up both young and old, in 2001, 752 people were dependent on every 1,000 persons in the working age population of 15 to 59 years.Compared to that, in 2011, this ratio has come down to 652.

Across religious communities, Muslims have the highest total dependency ratio of 748 compared to the lowest ratio for Jains which is just 498. For Hindus, the ratio is 640. All ratios have declined since 2001.

Source:: Jan 13 2016 : The Times of India, p.1.
http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31804&articlexml=Muslims-have-largest-share-of-young-but-also-13012016001008#

Internal migrants make up 1/3rd of India’s population

50% Of Global Figure, Twice That Of China

TIMES INSIGHT GROUP 

    Internal migrants in India are expected to touch 400 million in the 2011 census, over half the global figure of 740 million and almost twice as much as China’s estimated 221 million. These migrants, comprising a third of the population in India, are estimated to account for remittances anywhere between Rs70,000 crore and Rs120,000 crore. 
    The estimate of 400 million internal migrants, of course, far exceeds the total estimated Indian migrants to other countries, which is estimated at just 11.4 million. While there is more attention and policies for emigrants, internal migrants are accorded very low priority by the government whose existing policies have failed to provide legal or social protection to them. 

‘Half of world’s 30 million slaves in India’ Some 30 million people are enslaved worldwide—trafficked into brothels, forced into manual labour, victims of debt bondage or even born into servitude—and India accounts for almost half of them, a global index on modern slavery showed on Thursday. In India, slavery takes the form of forced labour in quarries and kilns, besides trafficking for prostitution. After India, China has the most slaves, at 2.9 million. 

‘80% of all migrants in India are women’ 
    The UNESCO report —“Social Inclusion of Internal Migrants in India” — was released by rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday. 
    According toNSSO2007-08 women constitute 80% of total internal migrants. “There isn’t enough data on women migrant labour because of the assumption that most women migrate because of marriage. This assumption blocks further analysis of the women migrants engaged in paid labour and an understanding of how their vulnerabilities are being compounded by contemporary economic practices and not just because of historicalor culturalbaggage.Thisleads to the “invisibilisation” and undermining of women in policies too,” said Indu Agnihotri of the Centre for Women’s Development Studies. 
    The report estimated that about 30% of the migrants are youth aged 15-29 years and another 15 million are children. The intensity of migration is likely to increase in future. 
    Internal migrants constitute a floating population, which is put at anywhere at 15-100 million by different estimates. These migrants often lose social protection benefits as most benefits are linked to the place of residence, pointed out the report. 
    The report says internal migrants faced discrimination as ‘outsiders’, which excluded them from access to legal rights, public services and social protection programmes accorded to residents. This is despite the migrants providing cheap labour and typically doing the mostdirty,dangerous and degrading jobs that locals do not want to do. Far from being a burden on society, migrants’ cheap labour contributes to the national GDP, stated the report. 
    Jairam Ramesh, who provided the estimates of remittances, pointed out that migrants constitute a significant share of a state’s gross domestic product, about 10% in the case of Bihar and 3-4% in the case of Uttar Pradesh. “Portability of legal entitlements could make a huge difference to the lives of internal migrants. The UID number could be the single most important intervention which could ensure portability of legal entitlements as well as financial inclusion. Legal entitlements should not be location specific,only individualor household specific and UID number could make this possible,” said Ramesh. 
    Financial inclusion, he said, was important also because barely 30% of the remittances currently flow throughformalchannels,the remaining 70% being dependent on informal channels.

Source:::: The Times of India, 18-10-2013, .p.01,  http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/10/18&PageLabel=3&EntityId=Ar00302&ViewMode=HTML