The human brain can not remember unrelated facts or statistics that we come across in socio-economic survey which are random in nature. To memorize such facts we need to follow some techniques which help us to make some sense out of those scattered facts. Let me try to explain using the social geography of AP.
1) The concept of relativity: Why a particular district has the highest and lowest population? What is the order of districts in terms of population? How much is the difference between these districts? Get answers for these questions by looking at the raw data and draw your conclusions (as below)
a) Highest population East Godavari (52.86 Lakhs) & Lowest in Vizianagaram (23.44 Lakhs)
b) Population Ranking 1. EG 2. Guntur 3. Krishna 4. Vizag 5. Chittor 6. Anantapur 7. Kurnool 8. WG 9. Prakasam 10. Nellore 11. Kadapa 12. Srikakula 13. Vijayanagaram
2) Reasons: Why East Godavari has the highest population and Vizianagaram has the lowest? Is it because of mere size of the district or because of density? Find reasons and draw the conclusions
Populations density of EG is 413 and Vijayanagaram is 359 (EG is one of the densely populated states)
Area of EG is 10,807 Sq Km and Vijayanagaram is 6,539 Sq Km (Vizianagaram is second from the bottom in terms of size)
So both size and density of population are responsible for the highest and lowest populations in these two districts
3) Corroboration: You already know some things and when you read something new, try to corroborate it with what you already know. For example, you might have heard that whoever wins most seats in East Godavari will win the elections. It is not just sentiment. Most number of MLA constituencies are from EG. It has 19 seats. Also, we now know population-wise also EG is at the top. Now let us arrange districts based on population and look for crosschecking of what we already know
Population Ranking and constituencies 1. EG(19) 2. Guntur(17) 3. Krishna(16) 4. Vizag (15) 5. Chittor(14) 6. Anantapur(14) 7. Kurnool(14) 8. WG (15) 9. Prakasam(12) 10. Nellore(10) 11. Kadapa(10) 12. Srikakulam (10) 13. Vijayanagaram (9)
So, there is perfect matching between the population and assemble segments. This is one way to cross-check and to remember in a better way
4) Correlation: Though the data looks to be scattered, there exists a correlation between all the data out there. We need to understand the correlation between the data elements. For example, different districts have different population densities. WHy some districts have higher density when compare to other districts? Does correlation exist between population density and the region that district is located? (Greater Rayalaseema Vs Rest of the coastal belt). Is there a higher density in richer districts where better irrigation facilities exist?
Rayalaseema, Nellore and Prakasam = Population density less than 275; rest of the states greater than 350
Highest density in Krishna (518); Rich districts which are well irrigated (WG, EG and Guntur) has more than 400.
Vizag has a higher density (384) - may be because of higher urban population (47.45%)
Srikakulam has very high density (463) with no obvious reason. We can remember it as an exception
5) Existing familiarity: I am from Chittor district. I tried to understand about my district in comparison with the rest of the state and also compare with what you used to think all these years. Here is what I found
a) The rural population is 70.5% (I thought it would be less as we have big cities like Tirupati and Chittor and many bigger municipalities exist in Chittor District, but Chittor is predominantly rural)
b) There is a good percentage of SC population in our district (18.82%) which is more than the state average (17.08%). As I am from a rural area, I know that every village has SC colony attached and this number is not a surprise.
c) ST population is only 3.81% ( much less than state average 5.53%)
d) The literacy rate is 71.5% ( well above the state average and I am very happy about it. I am son of a teacher and his work did not go waste :) )
e) There are only 0.6% of Christians in our district (24k). I used to think there are at least 2% as I used to come across many churches in the town that I grew up (Madanapalli)
This kind of exercise will make it easy to understand, draw conclusions, answer mains questions in this area and also to remember the facts. Hope this helps! Let me know if you like this approach.
- Ravi Sekhar, DIrector (Precision Academy)
