Population, Census & Tribes: previous-year questions

Answer: (A) Andaman

The Jarawas are a Negrito hunter-gatherer tribe living on the western side of South and Middle Andaman; the Andaman Trunk Road runs along their reserve. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands have six Scheduled Tribes, five of them Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups: the Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarawa and Sentinelese (Negrito groups of the Andamans) and the Shompen (a Mongoloid group of Great Nicobar), besides the Nicobarese. Majuli (B) is the Brahmaputra river island of Assam, home of the Mising tribe and of Vaishnavite satras; Sagar (C) is the island in South 24 Parganas where the Gangasagar Mela is held; Lakshadweep (D) has a largely Muslim Scheduled Tribe population.

Answer: (A) the number of females per 1000 males.

The Census of India defines sex ratio as the number of females per 1,000 males, so option A is correct. Census 2011 figures: India 943, Kerala highest at 1,084, Haryana lowest among states at 879, and West Bengal 950. Option C resembles the child sex ratio, which is girls per 1,000 boys in the 0-6 age group (919 for India in 2011); option B is closer to a fertility measure; and option D is just a difference in numbers. Note that the UN and many countries express sex ratio the other way round, as males per 100 females. Laws to link: the PCPNDT Act, 1994 and the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme (2015).

Answer: (C) Mongoloid

The Lepchas, the indigenous people of Sikkim and the Darjeeling hills, belong to the Mongoloid racial stock like most tribes of the Himalaya and North-East. Proto-Australoid stock includes the Santhals and Mundas, and Negrito traits are found among some Andaman tribes.

Answer: (C) Kerala

In the 2011 Census Kerala had the highest literacy rate among states, about 94%, followed by Mizoram at about 91%. Tripura and Manipur were lower, so Mizoram is the tempting but wrong option.

Answer: (C) Meghalaya

The Khasi and Garo communities of Meghalaya are matrilineal: descent and property pass through the mother, usually to the youngest daughter. Kerala's Nair matrilineal system existed historically but has largely ended, so Meghalaya is the state known for it today.

Answer: (C) 324 persons/sq. km.

The 2001 Census put India's population density at about 324–325 persons per sq km, up from 267 in 1991. The 2011 Census figure was 382, so the higher options match neither 2001 nor any census exactly.

Answer: (D) Mizoram

Answer as of 2023 — this may have changed since.

In the 2011 Census Mizoram had the highest share of Scheduled Tribes among states, about 94% of its population. Madhya Pradesh has the largest ST population in absolute numbers, which makes it tempting, but a far lower percentage, as do Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

Answer: (D) North-Western Aryan Language Group.

In Grierson's classification of Indo-Aryan languages, Sindhi falls in the north-western group with Lahnda. Bengali and Odia are eastern, Hindi central, and Marathi southern Indo-Aryan.

Answer: (C) Bihar

In the 2011 Census Bihar had the highest density of any state, 1,106 persons per sq km. West Bengal was second at 1,028, which makes it the tempting wrong option; Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra were lower.

Answer: (B) Kerala

In the 2011 Census Kerala had the highest share of people aged 60 and above, about 12.6%, owing to low fertility and long life expectancy. Goa, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Maharashtra followed with lower shares.

Answer: (A) Tamil Nadu

The Todas are a pastoral tribe of the Nilgiri hills in Tamil Nadu, known for their buffalo herding and barrel-vaulted huts. Bihar and Jharkhand have tribes such as the Santhal and Munda, and Sikkim the Lepcha and Bhutia.

Answer: (A) Sikkim

In the 2011 Census Sikkim had the smallest population of any state, about 6.1 lakh. Mizoram (about 11 lakh), Arunachal Pradesh (about 14 lakh) and Goa (about 15 lakh) were all larger.

Answer: (A) the ratio between the total population and the actual utilization of land in a country.

The man–land ratio relates a country's total population to its effective land, meaning the land actually usable and productive along with its resources. It is thus a qualitative measure of the pressure of population on resources. Population density, by contrast, is simply the number of people divided by total area, a purely quantitative measure; option (B), comparing total land with total population, describes density, not the man–land ratio. Options (C) and (D) restrict the comparison to adults or males and are meaningless. Census 2011 figures: India's density 382 per sq km; Bihar highest among States (1,106), West Bengal second (1,028) and Arunachal Pradesh lowest (17).

Answer: (D) 1961 - 1981

India's population history is usually divided into four phases: 1901–21, stagnant growth (1921 is the "Year of the Great Divide", after the only decade with negative growth); 1921–51, steady growth; 1951–81, population explosion, when death rates fell quickly but birth rates stayed high; and after 1981, high growth with definite signs of slowing. Decadal growth peaked at 24.8% in 1961–71 and was 24.66% in 1971–81, so among the given options 1961–1981 is the period of explosion. Census 2011 recorded 121.08 crore people and decadal growth of 17.7%.

Answer: (C) Third stage

Answer as of 2022 — this may have changed since.

India is in the third stage of the demographic transition: the death rate is already low and the birth rate is falling, so population still grows but more slowly. The first stage has high birth and death rates and very slow growth, as in India before 1921. The second stage has a falling death rate but a high birth rate, causing a population explosion, as in India in the decades after 1951. The fourth stage, with both rates low and stable, is seen in countries such as Japan and those of Western Europe.

Answer: (A) Tamil Nadu

In Census 2011, Tamil Nadu had the largest number of towns of any state, more than a thousand statutory and census towns taken together. Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state, came next with 915 towns, which makes (C) the tempting option. Census 2011 counts both statutory towns (with a municipality or similar body) and census towns, which meet the population, density and non-farm workforce tests. West Bengal had the largest number of census towns (780), but it is not among the options.

Answer: (D) 183 Days

The Census of India defines a main worker as a person who worked for 6 months or more, that is, at least 183 days, in the year before the census. A person who worked for less than 183 days is a marginal worker. The other figures fall just short of six months. Main and marginal workers together make up the census's total workers.

Answer: (A) Sentinelese

The Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island in the Andamans reject all contact with outsiders and are one of the world's last isolated peoples; entry to the island is prohibited. The Gonds of central India are one of the largest tribal groups in the country. The Toto, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group, live at Totopara in Alipurduar district of West Bengal. The Apatanis of the Ziro valley in Arunachal Pradesh are known for wet-rice cultivation combined with fish farming.

Answer: (B) 24 January

National Girl Child Day has been observed on 24 January since 2008 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, to raise awareness about the rights of girls, child sex ratio and gender discrimination. 23 January is Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's birthday, observed as Parakram Diwas. 25 January is National Voters' Day, marking the founding of the Election Commission in 1950. 26 January is Republic Day, when the Constitution came into force in 1950.

Answer: (A) Lakshadweep

Answer as of 2022 — this may have changed since.

Lakshadweep, with a population of about 64,000 in Census 2011, is the least populous Union Territory, and also the smallest in area. Most of its people are Scheduled Tribes, a higher share than in any other state or UT. Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli, now merged into one Union Territory, each had several lakh people. The Andaman & Nicobar Islands had a population of about 3.8 lakh.