Demographic structure of devikulam taluk, Idukki District, Kerala

Demography is the study of human populations especially with to size, structure, density, literacy, scheduled caste population, scheduled tribe population, growth rate, occupational structure and dynamics and the integration of all these with respect to social and economic conditions. The study area of Devikulam taluk is situated on the western slope of the Western Ghats. Demographic characteristics were mainly collected from Idukki district census handbook for the years 1971 to 2011. According to 2011 census, the study area having about 16% (177621) of the total population of Idukki District 3.is distributed in 12 villages. The share of total population of Devikulam to the district has remarkably decreased since 1981 and the growth rate in 2011 was-4.04. In 2011, five villages were noted as showing negative growth. Literacy rate increased from 42.2% in 1971 to 82.89% in 2011 while scheduled caste and scheduled tribe population growth rate exhibited decreasing trend. One of the an utstanding feature of the distribution of population of the Devikulam Taluk is that the entire population of the taluk is residing in the rural areas. The factors that contributed to the absence of urbanization in the taluk are rugged terrain, steep slope, dense forests and the lack of infrastructure like railways, industries and so on. Since the entire population of the taluk is living in rural areas, it can be termed as a rural taluk. Therefore, the study of demographic structure in Devikulam taluk is very much important to understand the population dynamics from 1971 to 2011.