SERICUL TURE AND THE PROCESS OF CHANGE - Institute for ...

under 15 years and the active population, which is between 15 and 59
years represent about 30 per cent and 61 per cent respectively. This is in
contrast to the Indian population as a whole, as recorded by the 1981
census, which shows that they were about 40 per cent and 54 per cent
respectively. It indicates a reduction in the younger population and an
increase in the active population. The young, old and total dependency
ratios for the core village of the study are 49, 15 and 64 respectively.
The same for India as a whole, according to the 1981 census, are 73, 12
and 85 respectively. This indicates a reduction in the total dependency
ratio as well as in the young dependency ratio while a slight increase in
the old dependency ratio. The sex ratio is showing at 94 which is
favourable to males.
An analysis of the marital status shows that about one half of the
population is unmarried while about 42 per cent are married and about 7
per cent, widowed. There are no unmarried women in the age categories,
starting with 30 years. However, there is a marginal presence of
unmarried males in the third and fourth age categories. All the separated
in the village are women. The widows are more than three times that of
the widowers. While there are as many as 16 widows (about 3.5 %)
below the age of 45, there are none among the males, belonging to the
same group.
Family Size: Table 2.2 gIves the distribution of households by their
sizes. As the table indicates, the households with a family size of four
are most common, comprising about 22 per cent of the total
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