Women population in Mizoram will be given extra attention during population enumeration beginning February 9 with two of the eight districts being been classified as 'gender critical.
Based on certain indicators in the Census 2011, Lawngtlai district and Mamit district in the male-dominated state of Mizoram have been identified as gender critical among 262 districts and cities in the country.
''Lawngtlai and Mamit districts have been declared gender critical with sex ratio in the two districts less than 900,'' said Dr Chiranjeeb Kakoty, regional co-coordinator (North East), Alliance, with which the Government of India has tied up to carry out the gigantic task, for the first time in the history of the Indian Census.
While the sex ratio in Lawngtlai (rural) is 899, it is 889 in Mamit (rural), Dr Kakoty said.
The other two conditions to determine gender critical districts are female work participation and female literacy rate.
While female literacy rate in Lawngtlai district is 57.8 per cent, female work participation stands at 41.2 per cent. In Mamit district, 74.8 per cent of female population is literate while its female work participation is 53.1 per cent.
The rates of female literary and female work participation in the two districts are not at all low compared to the other 24 gender critical districts in the NE region.
''Since the two districts fail in the single criteria, they are declared as gender critical districts,'' Dr Kakoty said.
It was also pointed out that the eight per cent of the households in Lawngtlai district and 10 per cent of households in Mamit district are female-headed households.