The Rural Urban Dichotomy in India

Abstract

In India the classification of settlements is done by the census organizations as rural and urban. This status becomes very important as it plays a vital role in the provision of services and civic amenities to the settlements. The census uses certain criteria like total population, density and occupation for classifying these settlements. But today the world is transforming rapidly and as rural areas get connected by network of communication, rural areas are getting transformed rapidly with urban characteristics. So it is high time that census organizations wake up and bring about the classification of an intermediary centre between the strictly rural and urban area and identity the rurban centers and give them legal status and a statutory body for the governance .

The "Census Towns” identified by the Census organization fall in this category where it does not get the legal status of a town. So they hang in the middle without any civic amenities and are often governed by village panchayat though they possess distinct urban characteristics. If proper governance is provided to these census towns or rurban units it can play an important role in sustainable urban development in India. Most of these rurban units have distinct urban consumption behavior pattern and changing occupation from agriculture to service sector. Apart from the population characteristics other criteria like built up form, consumption pattern should be taken into consideration. It is noteworthy that in 2001, and for the first time in India, official statistics showed that the number of "villages” with more than 10,000 inhabitants exceeded the number of "towns” and "urban areas” with comparable populations. (Denis, E and Gnanau.M, 2011) If these can be added in the category of prospective urban centers as "Rurban centers” it can go a long way in creating better places to live in. Now the question arise is whether to categorize these villages as rural, Urban or Rurban?

This paper will look at this situation with a case study from Barddhman District of West Bengal which one of the most urbanized district of West Bengal outside the Kolkata Metropolitan Area. According to the 2011 census nearly 40% of the population of Barddhman is urban.