Indian population over 1.02 billion, literacy up at 64.8 percent

India's population has swelled to more than 1.02 billion, an official said on Sunday.
"India has touched a population of over 1.02 billion as of March 1 this year," Census Commissioner J.K. Banthia said on the occasion of World Population Day.
"At 00:00 hours (Saturday/Sunday) the country's population stood at 1,027,015,247 comprising 531,277,078 men and 495,738,169 women."
The official citing figures from the last census conducted in 2001 said India added 182 million people between 1991 and 2001, which was more than the population of Brazil, the world's fifth most populous country.
Banthia said the northern state of Uttar Pradesh with 166 million people continued to be India's most populous state, followed by western Maharashtra with 97 million residents and eastern Bihar state third with 83 million people.
He also said 64.8 percent of India's population was literate, with the male literacy rate at 75.3 percent compared with the female literacy rate of 53.7 percent.
Male literacy shot up 11 percent and female literacy went up by 14.4 percent compared with the 1991 census, Banthia said.
Experts warned that efforts to slow the population growth rate through state-sponsored birth-control programmes could encourage people to commit female foeticide, a practice banned by law.
"India has achieved a (population) growth rate of 1.6 percent annually which by any account is a positive development keeping in view the current population," said A.R. Nanda, chairman of the autonomous Population Foundation of India.
"(But) the imposition of arbitrary policies to control population will definitely have a fallout as a majority of people in the country may opt for a male child which could lead to gender imbalance."
The 2001 national headcount said low sex ratio in states such as Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and New Delhi indicated the prevalence of female foeticide.
"The child sex ratio in the age group of 0-6 years at the national level slipped from 945 (females to 1,000 males) in 1991 to 927 in the last census," Banthia added.