Journal of Global Resources
Volume 5 (02)
July 2019
ISSN: 2395-3160 (Print), 2455-2445 (Online)

Page 29-34

04
REGIONAL DISPARITIES IN THE LEVEL OF DEMOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT: A
DISTRICT LEVEL ANALYSIS OF BUNDELKHAND REGION OF MADHYA PRADESH,
INDIAPawan Kumar Sharma
Assistant Professor, Department of General & Applied Geography
Dr. Hari Singh Gour University (A Central University), Sagar, (M.P.), India.
Email: pawansharmageo@gmail.com
Abstract: Regional Development generally refers to a continuous process. The development
process improves and increases the quality of life of human being. The development Process
largely depends on the implementations of the planning policy by the government. And theplanning policies are prepared based on the availability of both the physical and humanresources of the region. Regional disparities refers that there are imbalances between two or
more regions in terms of the development of economic, social, demographic structure of aregion. Regional disparities in the level of demographic development is due to theimplementation of planning policies in the selective regions, any specific age group ofpopulation, any specific section of society (such as Scheduled caste and tribe and otherbackward classes), to a specific gender group of the population. Our present study isconcerned to the study of regional disparities in the level of demographic development: adistrict l level analysis of the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, India. The study area
consisting six districts, locates in the central India. It is a part of Bundelkhand upland ofMadhya Pradesh. This study is based mainly on the data collected from the secondary
sources at the district level. The analysis of data is made based on the quantitative andstatistical techniques, such as Arithmetic mean, Standard Deviation and Composite Index
method. For computation of the statistical data Microsoft Excel and for the preparation of themap is made by Arc Gis 10.1. To determine the level of Demographic development andregional disparities we take 9 demographic indicators according to their importance. The
analysis by composite index shows that the Sagar district is relatively developed ascompared to other five districts. Damoh and Datia district are moderately developed,
Chhatarpur is Less Developed and Tikamgarh and Panna district are very less developed interms of demographic development. Regional disparities in the level of demographic
development are due to the economic and physio-climatic conditions of the region.
Key words: Composite Index, Demographic Development Indicators, Regional Disparities,
Level of Development,
Introduction
Regional Development generally refers to a continuous process which is responsible foroverall, integrated, and sustainable improvement of the current situation of place people or tophenomena, which brings uniform and balanced growth of a region. The concept of regional
development is multi-dimensional and multilevel. It includes the integrated performance inagricultural, social, infrastructural and industrial sectors of any region and the regional
disparity is the outcome of imbalanced regional development that varies from one region toregion depending upon socio-cultural, economic and demographic characteristics (Kumar, D.
and Mishra, S.P. 2017). The imbalanced regional development is due to the implementationof the centralized planning program and special area development programme causes
Regional disparities.
The Study Area
The area under study is the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh consisting 6 Districts.
Madhya Pradesh state is situated in central India, with 308,252 km² area; it is the second
largest state in India. The total population of the state is 72,597,565 as per 2011 census,ranking it sixth among Indian states. The state is divided into 12 administrative Divisions 4529

districts, 317 tehsils and 459 development blocks. The state is of low hills, narrow valleys,plateaus and plains. Geographically, it can be divided into four regions:
The Bundelkhand region lies at the heart of India located below the Indo-Gangetic
plain to the north with the undulating Vindhyan mountain range spread across the northwest
to the south. The region span across thirteen districts: seven in Uttar Pradesh - Jhansi,Jalaun, Lalitpur, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Banda and Chitrakut, and six in Madhya Pradesh. Thestudy area under this research is the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, which
consists of six districts of northern Madhya Pradesh, namely Datia, Tikamgarh, Chattarpur,Damoh, Sagar and Panna. It covers an area of 70800 km² and is located between 23˚20’and 26˚20’ N latitude and 78˚20’ and 81˚40’E longitude (NGSI, 1989). As per the Census
2011, The Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh is the habitat of 8653492 people.
Amongst the total Population 4568243 are male and 4085249 are female and 191555 are
urban and 6737939 are rural population. The Sex Ratio of the region is 894 per thousand
male with a Population Density of 209 per square km, is very low in relation to the country’s
average. Along with these, this region is the home of 715625 Scheduled Tribe populations
because it is the cradle land of these people.
The area is rockyand characterized by a high percentage of barren and uncultivableland. The soil form is the mixture of black and red-yellow which is not considered very fertile.
The rainfall is sparse and the agricultural production is low. The study area has asignificantly high Poverty level. This area is rich in forest, has lost its forest cover to a largeextent. So, the forest as a means of livelihood is becoming extinct day by day. Mining ofminerals and stone-quarrying has emerged as a major non-form activity but is based on
exploitative wage labour. It has poor human development index. Due to uneven distributionof settlement, it is difficult to provide all infrastructural facilities at village level because of lackof population threshold.
Figure 01: Bundelkhand Region of Madhya Pradesh

Objectives
The objectives of our present study are as follows:

To analyse the factors affecting the level of demographic development.
To study the regional imbalances and disparities in the level of demographic
development in the 6 districts of Bundelkhand region, M.P.
To identify the status of the districts in relation to the level of Demographic
development.
30Data Base and Methodology
Our present study is totally based on the secondary sources of Data, obtained from thedifferent organization and commission. Most of the data related to the demographic
development are taken from the census report, 2011. Some data at the district level areobtained from District Census Handbook, 2011 (DCHB,2011) published by the Ministry ofHome Affairs, Government of India. To measure and calculate the level of development andregional imbalances among the 6 districts of the region, 9 development indicators ofdemography have been taken on the basis of our purpose of the study.
Sl. No.

Table 01: Demographic Indices
Demographic Indices

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Literacy Rate
Female Literacy Rate
Sex Ratio
Sex Ratio for the Age group of 0-6 Year
Percentage of Urban Population to the total Population
Percentage of Main Workers to the total Population
Literacy Rate of Scheduled Caste Population
Literacy Rate of Scheduled Tribe Population
Percentage of Non S.C. and S.T. Population

In India several studies in the context of spatial variation in the level of development
have been made by several scholars’ viz. A. And Mohanty, M.K.(2006), Singh R.(2006),
Naseer, Y., Siddiqui, F.A. and Kazma Khan (2005), Nair K.R.G.(2004), Agarwala, A.K. andHazarika, P.L.(2002), Ahluwalia, Montek S. (2000), L.S. Bhatt, (1972), R.L. Singh(1971),Pal(1975), R.P. Mishra (1978) etc. Our present study aims to measure the regional
imbalances and disparities in the level of demographic development in the Bundelkhand
Region of Madhya Pradesh at district level as it consist of six districts, with the help ofComposite Index Method of Development. Along with this for measuring the level ofdemographic development statistical techniques have been used, such as Mean, Standard
deviation etc. So in this study in a more systematic manner both the qualitative andquantitative methods have been used. To compute the Statistical data and their cartographic
representation, Microsoft Excel, word, and Arc-Gis-10.1 have been used.
To measure the regional imbalances and disparities in the level of demographic
development, Composite Index method of development have been used. The steps ofcalculation are as follows;

In the first step we select the indicators of development (Variables X).
Secondly we compute the mean (Xi) of the each selected development indicators.
The equation for mean is, ∑X/N.
Where,∑X= Sum of all the value of a indicators.
N= Frequency.
Thirdly we calculate the value of deviation (d) by this formula, (X-Xi).
Where,
X= Value of the indicators of each level.
Xi = Mean of the successive Indicators.
In the fourth step we have calculated the Standard Deviation (SD), using theequation,
SD= √ ∑D2/N-1
Where,∑D2 = Sum of the value of the squared deviation.
N = Total Frequency.
Standard Scores (I) have been calculated in the fifth steps by dividing (X-Xi) by
Standard Deviation (SD).i.e. (X-Xi/SD).
Then in sixth step the Gross Value have been calculated by summing all the value ofStandard Score i.e. I.
31




In the seventh step Composite index scores are computed by dividing the Grossvalue by the total number of the development indicators.
Finally we have taken four types of level of development e.g. 1. Relatively Developed,
2 Moderately Developed, 3. Less Developed, and 4. Very Less Developed.

Results and Discussion
The Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh consisting six districts is characterized byDeccan Trap lava flow, Barren topography, amphitheatric valley, escarpments, and poorly
developed red soils in most of the region and well developed black soils in some patches. As
it belongs to the Deccan Trap plateau the availability of the ground water is less. Besides thisthe rivers of the region is seasonal in nature and largely depends on south west monsoonal
rainfall as it is the main source water. For this, the region is becomes one of the water
stressed region in the country, due to this less availability water the demand of water inhouseholds, agriculture and industries are not fulfilled. For all these affecting factors thedemographic development is took placed as compared to the main stream of the country.
And the region becomes backward day by day in terms demographic development. In thispresent study 9 demographic indicators (Tab.1) are taken to show the demographic
development of the region.
The main purpose of this study is to analyse the factors affecting the level and statusof demographic development. This study also focussed on the study the regional imbalancesand disparities in the level of demographic development in the 6 districts of Bundelkhand
region, M.P.
Table 02: Composite Index of Development Indicators

0.77

0.36

-1.51

-1.74

-0.08

0.19

1.02

0.6

0.9

0.514

0.06

Tikamgarh

-1.16

-1.22

0.49

-0.39

-0.51

0.75

-0.52

-1.19

0.28

-3.47

-0.39

Chhatarpur

-0.76

-0.62

-0.79

-0.09

1.19

0.19

-1.03

-1.04

0.95

-2

-0.22

Sagar

1.44

1.63

-0.08

0.84

-1.4

0.86

1.38

1.09

0.09

5.85

0.65

CompositeIndex

Gross Value% of Non S.C.
and S.T.
Population% of Main
Workers to thetotal
Population

Literacy Rateof Scheduled
Tribe
Population

Percentage ofUrban
Population tothe total
Population

Literacy Rateof Scheduled
Caste
Population

Sex Ratio forthe Age groupof 0-6 Year

Datia

Literacy Rate

Sex Ratio

Weighted Value of the Following
FemaleLiteracy Rate

District

Damoh

0.27

0.32

1.13

0.95

-0.32

-0.09

-0.01

0.9

-0.5

2.65

0.29

Panna-0.57

-0.48

0.77

0.43

1.12

-1.91

-0.85

-0.37

-1.72

-3.58

-0.4

Figure 01: Level of Demographic Development
LEVEL OF DEMOGRAPHIC DEVELOPMENT

Standard Composite Score

0.8
0.6
Datia

0.4

Tikamgarh

0.2

Chhatarpur
0Sagar-0.2

DamohPanna-0.4-0.6

District32

Regional Imbalances and Disparities
The table three shows the different level of development, which are determined by thecomposite index method. And by this composite index the districts of the Region are divided
into four category of development on the basis of level of development. These fourcategories are Relatively Developed, Moderately Developed, Less Developed and Very LessDeveloped. Sagar district is the only district which falls in the category of RelativelyDeveloped, Damoh and Datia are moderately developed, Chhatarpur is less developed andTikamgarh is very less developed. The value of these nine demographic development
indicators is decreases from relatively developed to the very less developed Category.
Table 03: Classification of Districts Based on the Level of Development
S. No.
1234

Range of
Composite Index
Above 0.30
0.00 to 0.30
0.00 to -0.30
Below -0.30

Level ofDevelopment
Relatively Developed
Moderately Developed
Less Developed
Very Less Developed

Name of theDistricts
SagarDamoh, Datia
Chhatarpur
Tikamgarh, Panna

No. of theDistricts
1212

i. Relatively Developed Region (Density/ Choropleth Map To be paste here)
The Sagar district having the value of composite index i.e. 0.65 in terms of development falls
in the category above 0.30 and for this it is the only relatively developed district of theBundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh. Sagar district is relatively developed among the six
districts because the literacy rate, female literacy rate, sex ratio, proportion of the urban
population to the total population, percentage of the main workers to the total population,
percentage of non-scheduled caste and scheduled tribe population to the total population
etc. are very high in referenced to the other districts. Sagar district is relatively developed as
it have it have well connected transport network, banking facility, central university, privateuniversity, Govt. colleges, schools, Bundelkhand medical college, Army cantonments,
Districts administrative blocks, state forensic department, income tax department andreasonable amount of urban population. This district is relatively rich in cottage industry andthe goods are Bidi, Flour, Cloth, Agricultural tools, Fabrication, Agarbatti, Bricks, Bamboo
items etc.
ii. Moderately Developed Region
This zone having the composite index value ranging from 0 to 0.30 includes two districts.
These are Damoh and Datia and the composite index scores are 0.29 and 0.06 respectively.
These two district is moderately developed as compared to the Sagar district because theliteracy rate, female literacy rate, sex ratio, proportion of the urban population to the total
population, percentage of the main workers to the total population, percentage ofnonscheduled caste and scheduled tribe population to the total population etc. are less ascompared to the Sagar District. Mustered oil, Thrasher, Carpets, Bidi, Bamboo items are themajor goods produced in this region.
iii. Less Developed Region
Chhatarpur is the less developed Region of the Bundelkhand region as it has the composite
score of -0.22 and the range of the composite index value ranges 0.00 to -0.30. It is lessdeveloped region because the literacy rate, female literacy rate, sex ratio, proportion of theurban population to the total population, percentage of the main workers to the total
population, percentage of non-scheduled caste and scheduled tribe population to the total
population are comparatively low in referenced to the other districts. And most of the working
populations are engaged in agricultural practices.
iv. Very Less Developed Region
Very Less Developed region is composed of two districts named Tikamgarh and Panna andthe composite scores are -0.39 and 0.40 respectively and the composite index value ranges
below -0.30. These two district is very less developed because the literacy rate, female
literacy rate, sex ratio, proportion of the urban population to the total population, percentageof the main workers to the total population, percentage of non-scheduled caste and33

scheduled tribe population to the total population are extremely low in referenced to the otherdistricts. As most of the working populations are engaged in agricultural practices andworking as marginal workers.
Conclusion
Generally the Demographic Development is the outcome of the Educational, Industrial,
Infrastructural and finally the Economic development of a particular region. And these solelyare interconnected and interrelated to each other. From the above discussions it is very clearthat the composite index method of is very effective to show the development of a region. As
stated in the table 1 all the nine demographic indicators clearly show the level ofdemographic development of the region. In account of the computed value of the composite
index we categorized the six districts into four levels of development. Out of the six districts
in Sagar district literacy rate, female literacy rate, literacy of the scheduled caste populationand literacy of the scheduled tribe population is very high as compared to the other districtsof this region, occupies the top position. Datia and Damoh districts are in second and thirdposition. Tikamgarh and Chhatarpur are the backward districts in terms of demographic
development as the literacy rate is very low and secure the position at the bottom in terms ofdevelopment. Along with this the sex ratio for the age group 0-6 year is highest in the Damoh
District followed by Sagar and Panna on the other hand this is very low in the Datia district.
The main working population of Sagar district to the total population is highest in theBundelkhand region followed by Tikamgarh and Chhatarpur district. And the in terms of theoverall demographic development are in the Sagar District and the Panna is very lessdeveloped and occupies the position at the bottom.
Acknowledgement: ICSSR for providing grant under Major Research Project.
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