The composition of Human Resources includes different attributes of the population. It includes age structure, sex-ratio, literacy rate, ratio of rural-urban population, working and non-working population, etc. All these parameters play an important role in reflecting occupation, lifestyle and social status of the population.
Let us study three important attributes of human resource, i.e. age structure, sex-ratio and literacy rate.
Age Structure: Age structure of population is an important component of demographic structure. It refers to the number of people belonging to different age groups. Generally, the population is categorized into three broad age groups, i.e.
People below 14 years of age.
People between 15 years to 59 years make up the adult population.
People between 59 years and above a old population.
A large number of children below 15 years and older people above 59 years come under dependent population. On the other hand, the number of people in the age group of 15-59 years is defined as the productive population as they are biologically most reproductive and economically active. This group also acts as an indicator of population productivity.
Sex-Ratio: It is a ratio between the number of females and males in a population. The sex-ratio is expressed as the number of females per thousand males. It has been observed that in European countries, the number of females is more than males. Thus, Europe has a high or favorable sex-ratio. Rising sex-ratio has been recorded since the early 1980s and has since then continued to increase with no signs of reversing. In India, the sex-ratio was recorded as 943 in 2011 which has declined from 972 as recorded in 1901.
Sex-ratio in India is declining due to several reasons. Of these, most common are:
Preference for male children due to social, economic and religious reasons.
Infant mortality is higher among girls than among boys because of lack of proper medical facilities.
General neglect of female children during childhood is largely responsible for high female mortality rate.
Pre-natal sex determination tests, inspite of ban, continue to large scale practice of female fortified.
Among the Indian states, the state of Kerala had the highest sex-ratio of 1084 and Haryana had the lowest sex-ratio of 879 in the year 2011.
Literacy Rate: Literacy rate is the percentage of people who can read and write in a certain country. Literacy rate varies from country to country and from rural to urban population in the same country. It is more among male than female population, more in urban areas than in rural areas. The literacy rate of any country is an important indicator as it affects the socio-economic development of a nation.
The people of a country are its real wealth. They make use of the country’s resources. Population is an asset for the country rather than a liability. It is an important indicator of the socio-economic strength of a country. Population becomes human capital when there is investment made in education, health and skill development. Thus, investment in human capital yields the highest return. Therefore, in the entire process of development, the focus should be on the well-being of human beings.
Do You Know? :-
Population pyramids are an interesting means of studying population patterns of any country. They may be useful in knowing the ratio of male-female population of any country, the age group of various people, etc. In countries like Japan, low birth rates make the pyramid narrow at the bottom. In India, on the other hand, the pyramid is broad in the younger age group because now more infants survive to adulthood.
