Issue for October - December 2011 - National Institute of Rural ...

474 B.N.Shivalingappa and Sowmyashree K.Land the remaining 11,72,428 (29 per cent) inurban areas. This indicates that majority of theaged population were concentrated in ruralareas. This may be due to more out-migrationof the young people towards the city,decreasing birth and death rates etc. Anothersignificant point is that the proportion offemales among aged population was more(males 7.7 per cent and females 8.8 per cent),because of high life expectancy (males 63.1and females 66.7 years) of females.Karnataka has thus witnessedtremendous differences in the distribution ofold age population between rural and urbanKarnataka. However, these differences are notuniform among all the districts, some districtsof the State have high proportion of rural oldage population, while the others have less ormoderate proportion depending on theregional socio-economic and demographicstructure. It is because of this that it is essentialto study the regional variation of rural agedpopulation distribution in the State; it helps tofind out the extent of concentration, whichmight give a suggestion to the planners andpolicy makers to provide good and necessarypolicies and programmes.The aged population is defined as thosewho are 60 years and above, which is normallyadopted in most of the studies. There are manyscholars from different disciplines who havefocused on the concept of population ageingat different levels. Leela Gulati (1993) hasconducted a study on population ageing andwomen in Kerala State. The study examinesthe ageing of the female population in theState of Kerala in the light of current and futuredemographic trends as well as the social andeconomic implication of this process. Bhim P.Subedi (1996) made a study of the geodemographiccontext of population ageing inNepal, during the period from 1952 to 1991based on the census and vital statistics. Herevealed that the process of ageing ofpopulation is mainly determined by the trendof fertility, mortality and migration. Daksha C.Barai (1997) emphasised the impact ofpopulation change on older age groups in Indiasince 1901 to 1991 and examined thedemographic causes (CBR, CDR, lifeexpectancy), consequences (dependency, sexratio, labour force) and related issues. D.P.Singhand Princy Yesudian (2007) made a study on,after age 60 in India from 1951 to 2001, usingsecondary data collected from decennialcensus and NSSO. The study examines thespatial pattern of population ageing, both inrural and urban areas in India in the light ofpresent and past demographic trends, as wellas the social and economical implication ofthis process.All these studies have concentrated onbroad analysis of the process of populationageing (growth, pattern, causes andconsequences) at macro level taking statesand countries as a unit of the study.The present study is an attempt to focusonly on the rural aged population distributionin Karnataka State taking district as an unit ofanalysis.Objectives of the Study : The studyattempts to examine the spatial distributionpattern of rural aged population in KarnatakaState at district level, to compare this patternof population ageing with that at the villagelevel.Study Area : Karnataka State lies in thesouth-western part of the peninsular India. TheState extends for about 750 kms from north tosouth and about 400 kms from east to west.Karnataka’s total land area is 1.91.791 sq kms.It accounts for 5.83 per cent of the total areaof the country (32.88 lakh sq kms) and rankseight among the major States of India in termsof size. As per the 2001 census, the State’spopulation was 5.27 crores out of whom 2.68crores were males and 2.58 crores females.Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 30, No. 4, October - December : 2011