Human and Economic Geography: UPSC Previous Year Questions (Geography)

Explanation

While North-East India has a high proportion of tribal communities relative to its total population, it does not account for over half of India’s total tribal population.The largest tribal populations are actually concentrated in central In-dia--states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Jharkhand. As per Census 2011, the North-Eastern states account for approximately 12-15% of the total Scheduled Tribe population in India, not more than half. Statements (a), (c) and (d) are correct:

The Constitution of India does not provide a specific definition for Scheduled Tribes. Instead, under Article 342, the President is empowered to specify the tribes or tribal communities to be recognized as Scheduled Tribes in consultation with the respective state governments. The Todas are an indigenous tribe residing in the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu. They are known for their distinct culture, traditional barrel-vaulted houses, and pastoral lifestyle centered around buffalo herding. Lotha is both a language and the name of a tribe in Nagaland. The Lotha Naga people predominantly inhabit the Wokha district of Nagaland.

Explanation

Statement 1 is incorrect: India was the first country to launch a National Programme for Family Planning in 1952. The Mission Parivar Vikas, one of the key flagship Family Planning Programmes of Government of India was launched in 2016 for increasing access to contraceptives and family planning services.

Statement 2 and 3 are correct:

The National Population Policy of India 2000, aimed to achieve a replacement level of fertility (2.1 children per woman) by 2010, with a target population of about 111 crores. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) represents the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her reproductive years, based on current fertility rates. Kerala was the First State in India to achieve replacement level fertility. The Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) 2021 study notes that India’s TFR was 1.9 in 2021, below the replacement level of 2.1.

Explanation

Uttar Pradesh had the largest absolute number of Scheduled Caste (SC) population in both the 2001 and 2011 censuses. However, in terms of the percentage of SC population relative to the total population, Punjab (not Bihar) recorded the highest proportion in both years. In 2001, Punjab’s SC population constituted approximately 28.85% of its total population, which increased to around 31.94% in 2011. In comparison, Uttar Pradesh’s SC population percentage was 21.15% in 2001 and slightly declined to 21.1% in 2011.

Option (b) is incorrect: The percentage decadal growth rate of the country has declined significantly from 21.5% for the period 1991-2001 to 17.6 % during 2001-2011.

Option (c) is incorrect: Sikkim was the state with the least population (approximately 5.4 lac) in 2001 as well as in 2011 (approximately 6.07 lac).

Option (d) is correct: The sex ratio represents the number of females per 1,000 males in a population. Pondicherry (now Puducherry) had a higher proportion of females compared to males(1001 females over 1000 male), resulting in the high-est sex ratio among Union Territories, according to the Census 2001 data.

Explanation

In 2001 Uttar Pradesh had the highest Population while Maharashtra ranked the second. In 2011 the same trend continued with Uttar Pradesh having the highest population (199,812,341) while Maharashtra followed(11,23,74,333) it at second.