URBANISATION
Definition of Urban and Urbanization
The process of Society's transformation from predominantly rural population to predominantly urban population is know as 'Urbanisation' . It includes two things- an increase in the number of people living in urban settlement and an increase in the percentage of the population engaged in non-agriculture activities living in such places.
The census of India(2001) definition of urban area is as follows-
(a) All places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee etc.
(b) All other palces which satisfy the following vriteria:
(i) a minimum population of 5000
(ii) at least 75% of male working population engaged in non-agriculture pursuit; and
(iii) a density of population of at least 400 persons per sq km.
Trend:
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| Indus valley Civilization |
India has a long history of urbanization. The first phase of urbanization trace in the Indus valley which is associated with the Harappa urbanism (2350 B.C- 1750 B.C) . This period was followed by a prolonged period of about one thousand years in which there is no such evidence of urbanization. From around 600 B.C onwards towns and cities grew with two cultural streams viz. the Aryan civilization in the north and the Dravidian civilization in the south. With the arrival of the British East India Company the nature of urbanization process changed remarkably. The major contribution of the British were:
(1) the creation of three metropolitan port cities of Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai.
(2) Creation of hill station in the Himalaya region and in south India.
(3) Modification of Existing cities with the introduction of civil lines and cantonments.
(4)The introduction of railways and modern industry.
(5) Improvement in urban amenities and administration.
Trend in urbanization from 1901 to 2001 are shown in the following table.The table shows that the number of towns/ urban agglomerations has increase from 1827 in 1901 to 5161 in 2001. There was a steady increase in the number of towns till 1951, but due to more rigorous tests applied in 1961 to determine whether a place qualified to be treated as town or not, resulted in the decline of number of towns from 1384 to 2365 in 1961.
The total population living in urban areas as well as the percentage of urban population to total population of India had been gradually increasing since 1901. Only 26 million people lived in town till 1901 and by 2001 the urban population increase by more then eleven times to 285.4 million.
Level of Urbanization - state wise
In India, the level of Urbanization varies widely among the states. Goa is the most urbanized state where 49.76% of the population lived in urban areas. Among the larger states, Tamil Nadu with 44.04% is the most urbanized state. This is followed by Maharastra (44.42%), Gujarat (37.36%), Karnataka (33.98%) and punjab (33.92%) where over one-third of the total population is urban. Himachal Pradesh has the lowest level of urbanization where less then 10% of the total lives in urban areas. The percentage of urban population to total population below the national average in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh,Andhra Pradesh and Kerela.
The Union Territories Of Delhi and Chandigarh are the most urbanized areas in the country. this territories have 93.18% and 89.77% of their population as urban respectively. On the other hand, Dadra and Nagar Haveli is the least urbanized among the Union Territory where only 22.89% of the population live in urban areas. In fact, all the Union Territories except Dadra and Haveli and Andaman and Nicobar Islands are highly urbanized areas.
Mizoram where 49.63% of the population lives in Urban areas has moved from the 15th position in 1981 to 6th position in 1991 and second position in 2001. Of the total Urban population of India, more than one-half lives in just five states- Maharastra, Uttra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. The other five states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Bihar and Rajasthan account for one-fourth of India's total urban population.
IMPACT/PROBLEMS
India is one of the less urbanized countries of the world with only 31.31% (2001) population living in urban areas. Urbanization has been an instrument of economic, social and political progress, it has led to serious socio-economic problems. The impact or problems of urbanization in India are as follows:
1. Urban sprawl: Urban sprawl are a real expansion of the cities both in population and geographical area, of rapidly growing cities is the root cause of urban problems. The urban sprawl is taking place at the cost of valuable agricultural land. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkota, Chennai, Bangalore etc. are example of Urban sprawl due to large scale migration of people from the surrounding areas.
2. Overcrowding: Overcrowding is a situation in which too many people live in too space. Overcrowding leads to tremendous pressure on infrastructural facilities like housing, electricity, water, transport, employment etc.
3. Housing: Overcrowding leads to a chronic problem of shortage of houses in urban areas. This problem is more common in those urban areas where there is lager influx of employed or underemployed immigrant who live when they enter cities from surrounding areas.
4. Unemployment: Major cause of unemployment in urban area is large scale migration of people from rural to urban areas. The percentage of unemployment is even higher among the educated people. It is estimated that about half of all educated urban unemployed are concentrated in four metropolitan cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkota, Chennai). The root cause is that limited capacity of urban areas could not create enough employment opportunities and adsorb the rapid growth of the urban labour force.
5. Slums and Squatter Settlements: The rapid urbanization in conjunction with industrialization has resulted in the growth of slums. Slums occur due to many factors such as shortage of developed land for housing, the prices of land beyond the reach of urban poor, a large influx of rural migrants to the cities in search of jobs etc.
Squatter settlements are relatively temporary and are often scattered in all parts of the city especially outer zones where urban areas merge with their rural hinterland. Squatter settlement badly lack essential public service sch as water, light, sewage.
6. Transport: One of the inevitable consequences of urbanization is traffic congestion and traffic jam during the peak hours. Transport problems increase and become more complex as town grows in size.
7. Water: The supply of water started falling short of demand as the cities grows in size and number. Today, we have reached a stage where practically no city in India gets sufficient water to meet the needs of city dwellers. Therefore, increase of population in urban centres creates a shortage of basic amenities of water.
8. Sewerage Problem: Urban areas in India are frequently plaque with several water borne diseases. In most Indian cities, water pipe runs in closer proximity to sewer line. Any leakage leads to contaminations of water resulted in the spread of several diseases.
9. Trash Disposal: Huge quantity of garbage produced by our cities pose a serious health problem. Most cities do not have proper arrangements for garbage disposal and the existing landfills are full to the brim. These landfills are hotbeds of diseases and innumerable poisons leaking into their surroundings.
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