Q. In the context of demographic condition during colonial era in India, which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Answer: In the first stage of demographic transition, the rate of population growth was very high.
Notes: The first statement is correct as it is true that before 1921, India was in the first stage of demographic transition. The second statement is incorrect. The natural growth rate of population only improved in the second half of the 20th century. The process of demographic transition in India is said to have set in sometime in the late 1920s and early 1930s when death rates started declining. Prior to that, India's population was in the first stage with very high birth and high death rates. The death rate fluctuated from year to year, and as a consequence, the size of population remained almost stationary. With the onset of decline in the death rates, the population of the country entered the second stage of transition. Birth rates responded only in the second half of the last century. Evidences indicate that decline in birth rate remained only marginal for over fifty years since the turn of the last century. A definite dent in the birth rate was noticed only from 1961-70 onward, which marked the end of the second stage or the 'early expanding stage'.