SCs, STs form 38 pc of state population: Census

About 16.5 per cent of the state's population belong to the scheduled castes (SC), whereas the schedule tribes (ST) constitute 22.1 per cent of the total 4.19 crore people in the state, revealed the recently released 2011 Census report.

Odisha, which constitutes 3.5 per cent of the country's population, has 71,88,463 people categorised as SC while the number of ST people has been enumerated at 95,90,756.

"The population growth rate of Odisha during the decade 2001-2011 is 14.0 per cent whereas for SCs, it is 18.2 per cent and for STs, 17.7 per cent. Sex ratio of Odisha is 979 whereas for SCs and STs it is 987 and 1029 respectively", said Bishnupada Sethi, Director of Census Operations, Odisha, at a Data Dissemination Workshop organized at Srusti Academy of Management here.

The child population in the age group of 0-6 years, constitute 12.6 per cent of the total population. SCs and STs among this age group are 13.3 per cent and 15.9 per cent respectively.

A declining trend is noticed in percentage of child population during the decade compared to the previous one. Similarly, the sex ratio has come down among the overall population of children as well as those in the SC category.

The child sex ratio of Odisha has come down to 941 in 2011 from 953 in 2001 and for SCs the drop is from 958 to 951 during the same period. However in case of STs, the ratio has seen an increase. The ST child sex ratio has gone up from 979 to 980 during the decade.

The literacy rate of Odisha is 72.9 per cent whereas for SCs and STs, it is 69 per cent and 52.2 per cent respectively. The work participation rate for SCs is 1.6 per cent while for STs, it is 49.7 per cent. In the state, the work participation rate is 41.8 per cent.

The census has noticed declining trend in the ratio of children and younger age group people to the total population, whereas the same is on ascend for the older age group.

The percentage of child population in the age group 0-4 has come down from 9.71 per cent in 2001 to 8.70 per cent in 2011.

In the age group of 80 plus, the percentage has increased from 0.80 per cent to 0.95 percent in the last decade. The same trend is marked for the age groups 55-59 to 80 plus.

During 2001 Census, slums were reported in 57 urban local bodies (ULBs) whereas in 2011 it has gone up to 76.