CHANGING DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE OF HASSAN DISTRICT, KARNATAKA, INDIA: A GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE

The present paper aims to analyse the total and sex-wise causes of dynamic growth and distribution of population. Population growth is inevitable outcome of the demographic transition, primarily as a result of high fertility and secondarily mortality declines and mobility in view of rapidly growing or population explosion. Growth of population is the change in the number in a particular area between two given points of time. As described in the preceding paper, the population of our ancestors, a few million years ago, was confined to Africa and numbered only in Lakh. By the time our ancestors invented agriculture, the information started passing from generation to generation. The transmission of knowledge about hunting, gathering and preparation of food helped in expansion of agriculture and growth of population. The growth of population was, however, not continuous after the agricultural Revolution. Civilization rose, flourished and disintegrated; periods of good and bad weather occurred; and famine and war took their toll. Despite fluctuations in the birth and death rates, agriculture permitted the existence not only of higher population densities, and settled village life, but also of large scale cooperative ventures, specialization of labour, development of crafts and social stratification, the growth and development of irrigation and the emergence of towns and cities concentrated of economic power in the hands of numerically small elite. The major turning point in the population growth came with the Industrial Revolution, led the systematization of production with the help of urban power-driven machine. At the time of Industrial Revolution, urban population increased rapidly, and living standards in new industrial towns were abysmal, especially for the poorer families. Families become as the unit of production, goods were produced for sale in regional, national and international markets. There occurred to migrate from rural to urban areas and the productivity per capita increased substantially. The impact of migration on population (dynamics) size and age structure of population has been studied. Existing studies have paid a great deal of attention to population growth and its social and economic implications.