India is a country with a lot of demographic diversity. There are substantial differences between states and among districts within states in the case of social and economic development. In the present context, the issue of population stabilization has to be addressed on the basis of area specific policies and programmes. For this purpose, the availability of reliable data relating to key social, economic and demographic indicators is very crucial. Therefore, about a year back, the National Commission on Population (NCP) started an exercise firstly to identify the relevant indicators and secondly to generate and update the data on them from different sources.

On the basis of detailed discussions in the Planning Commission, 13 indicators were selected. Using the district-wise data from 1991 Census and RCH survey, an exercise was undertaken to rank the districts on the basis of a composite index developed in consultation with the Population Foundation of India. Meanwhile, the preliminary results of Census 2001 became available and the list of indicators was also modified as per the Resolution adopted at the Conference of District Magistrates convened by NCP in April 2001. Using the data brought out by Census 2001, the latest RCH survey and the information available with the Planning Commission, the district-wise rankings were re-arranged and modified in consultation with the ICMR. Though the result of this exercise may suffer from certain limitations as district-wise data from Census 2001 is still not published in case of some indicators and estimates have had to be used to fill in the gaps, this data base, it is hoped, will be useful to policy makers, administrators, researchers and all those who are concerned with the demographic issues.

 The NCP would like to acknowledge the contribution of Dr. K Srinivasan, ED, PFI, Dr. Padam Singh, Addl. DG, ICMR and Shri K. Narayanan Unni, Dy. RGI, Shri K. P. Katailiha, Dy. Adviser Planning Commission, Shri. Ajay Pandey, Consultant, NCP and other staff of NCP for completing the above exercise. We would also like to convey our gratitude to Shri N Vijayaditya DG, NIC and his team of officers and staff working with Planning Commission, for undertaking the mapping of the data. 

Krishna Singh Member-Secretary (NCP)