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CHAPTER
URBAN SETTLEMENTS
Unlike rural settlements, urban settlements
are generally compact and large in size. They
are engaged in a variety of non-agricultural,
economic and administrative functions. For
food and raw materials, they depend on their
hinterland. Cities are thus closely linked to
rural areas around them. Cities produce a
variety of goods and services, which they
supply to the rural areas. In return they get
primary product and labour supply from
rural areas. This exchange is performed
sometimes directly and sometimes through
a series of market towns and cities. Thus,
cities are connected separately as well as
collectively with the villages and also with
each other. The whole range of cities and
towns thus act as the functional nodes or
centres of a larger geographical scheme of
cities, towns, villages and their resources for
the territorial and functional organisation of
the whole country.
Definition of Towns
Town is defined in different ways in different
countries. In India, the Census of India 2001
identifies two types of towns: Statutory and
Census:
Statutory Towns: All places which have
municipal, or corporation, or cantonment
board, or a notified town area committee.
Census Towns: All other places which satisfy
the following criteria:
(i) A minimum population of 5,000
persons;
(ii) At least 75 per cent of male working
population engaged in nonagricultural pursuits; and
(iii) A density of population of at least 400
persons per sq. km.
EVOLUTION
OF
TOWNS
IN
INDIA
Towns flourished since prehistoric times in
India. Even at the time of Indus valley
civilisation, towns like Harappa and
Mohanjodaro were in existence. The second
phase of urbanisation began around 600 BC.
It continued with periodic ups and downs
until the arrival of Europeans in India in 18th
century. Urban historians classify towns of
India as:
(1) Ancient towns, (2) Medieval towns, and
(3) Modern towns.
Ancient Towns: At least 45 towns have
historical background and have been in
existence at least for over 2000 years. Most
of them developed as religious and cultural
centres. Varanasi is one of the important
towns among these. A yodhya, Prayag
(Allahabad), Pataliputra (Patna), Mathura and
Madurai are some other ancient towns.
Medieval Towns: About 100 of the existing
towns have their root in the medieval period.
Most of them developed as headquarters of
principalities and kingdoms. Most of them are
fort towns and came up on the ruins of earlier
existing towns. Important among them are
Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Agra and
Nagpur.
Moder n Towns: The British and other
Europeans modified the urban scene. As an
external force, starting their foothold on
coastal locations, they first developed some
trading ports such as Surat, Daman, Goa,
Pondicherry, etc. The British later
consolidated their hold from three principal
nodes Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai
(Madras), and Kolkata (Calcutta) and built
Urban Settlements
them in the British fashion. Rapidly extending
their domination either directly or through
super control over the princely states, they
established their administrative centres, hilltowns as summer resorts, and added new
civil, administrative and military areas to
them. Towns based on modern industries also
evolved after 1850. Jamshedpur can be cited
as an example.
After independence, a large number of
towns emerged as administrative headquarters
(Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar,
Dispur, etc.) and industrial centres (Durgapur,
Bhilai, Sindri, Barauni, etc.). Some old towns
also developed as satellite towns around
metropolitan cities such as Ghaziabad,
Rohtak, Gurgaon, etc. around Delhi. With
increasing investment in rural areas, a large
number of medium and small towns have
developed all over the country.
URBANISATION
OF
population to urban places. Growth of cities
involves two processes: enlargement of urban
centres and emergence of new towns. Both
have played a significant role in growth of
urban population and urbanisation
(Table 6.1).
Types of Urban Settlements
Towns and cities are classified in different
ways. However, classification on the basis of
size and functions is most common.
Towns and Cities based on Population Size
Census of India classifies urban centres into
six classes as presented in Table 6.2. Urban
centre with population of more than one lakh
is called a city and less than one lakh is called
a town. Cities accommodating population
between one to five million are called
metropolitan cities and more than five million
are mega cities. Majority of metropolitan and
mega cities are urban agglomerations. An
urban agglomeration may consist of any one
of the following three combinations: (i) a town
and its adjoining urban outgrowths, (ii) two
or more contiguous towns with or without
their outgrowths, and (iii) a city and one or
more adjoining towns with their outgrowths
INDIA
More than one-fourth of the total population
of India is urban. Total urban population
increased eleven fold, from 25.85 million in
1901 to 285.35 million in 2001. Such a rapid
growth has been possible by migration of
Table 6.1: India: Trends of Urbanisation 1901-2001
Year
Number of
Towns/UAs
Urban Population
(in Thousands)
% of Total
Population
Decennial
Growth (%)
1901
1827
25851.9
10.84
1911
1815
25941.6
10.29
0.35
1921
1949
28086.2
11.18
8.27
1931
2072
33456
11.99
19.12
1941
2250
44153.3
13.86
31.97
1951
2843
62443.7
17.29
41.42
1961
2365
78936.6
17.97
26.41
1971
2590
109113.9
19.91
38.23
1981
3378
159462.5
23.34
46.14
1991
4689
217611.0
25.71
36.47
2001
5161
285354.9
27.78
31.13
UA Urban Areas
53
India People and Economy
Table 6.2: India: Class-wise number of towns and cities and their population, 2001
Class
Population Size
All
I
1,00,000 and more
Number
Population
(Million)
% of total Urban
Population
% Growth
1991-2002
5161
285.35
100.00
31.13
423
172.04
61.48
23.12
II
50,000 - 99,999
498
34.43
12.30
43.45
III
20,000 - 49,999
1386
41.97
15.00
46.19
IV
10,000 - 19,999
1560
22.60
8.08
32.94
5,000 - 9,999
1057
7.98
2.85
41.49
VI
Less then 5,000
227
0.80
0.29
21.21
together for ming a contiguous spread.
Examples of urban outgrowth are railway
colonies, university campus, port area,
military cantonment etc. located within the
revenue limits of a village or villages
contiguous to the town or city.
Size of towns and cities ranges from only
338 persons in Vasna Borsad industrial notified
area (Anand district, Gujarat) to 11.91 million
persons in Greater Mumbai. Class-wise
number of towns and cities and their population
in 2001 are given in Table 6.2. (Fig. 6.1).
INDIA
CLASSWISE DISTRIBUTION OF URBAN POPULATION (%) 2001
IV
8.1
V
2.9
VI
0.3
III
15.0
I
61.5
II
12.3
Fig. 6.1 Class-wise Distribution of Urban Population of India, 2001
54
Urban Settlements
Table 6.3: India: Population of Million plus
Cities/ Urban Agglomeration, 2001
It is evident from Table 6.2 that majority
of urban population live in 423 cities i.e., only
8.2 per cent of all urban places. They support
60.3 per cent of the total urban population of
the country. Out of 423 cities, 35 cities/urban
agglomerations have population more than
1 million each, thus they are metropolitan
cities (Fig. 6.2). Six of them are mega cities
with population over five million each. More
than one-fifth (21.0%) of urban population
lives in these mega cities.
More than half (55.2%) of the towns (with
population less than 20 thousand each)
accommodate only 11.0 per cent of urban
population. One-fourth (27.3%) of urban
population lives in middle-sized towns of the
country. These medium towns recorded
highest growth during the last decade, raising
their share in total urban population from
24.3 per cent to 27.3 per cent.
Rank
METROPOLITAN CITIES
With the increasing urban population, the
number of urban agglomerations and cities
having a population over one million increased
from 23 to 35 in just one decade (1991-2001).
Among them, Greater Mumbai is the largest
agglomeration with 16.4 million people;
Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore,
Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat,
Kanpur, Jaipur, Lucknow and Nagpur have
more than two million population each (Table
6.3). Total population living in these cities was
107.88 million in 2001. Thus, they supported
more than 37.8 per cent of total urban
population of the country in 2001 as against
32.5 per cent in 1991. These cities recorded
the highest growth (52.0%) of population
among all classes of towns and cities.
Continuing concentration of population in
these cities without corresponding increase
in economic activities has resulted in the
development of slums.
Slums: One of the major characteristics of
Indian cities is the growth of squatter
settlements, called slums. Twenty-six states
and union territories have reported the
presence of slums in 607 towns and cities in
55
Name of Urban
Agglomeration/Cities
Population
(in millions)
1.
Greater Mumbai
16.37
2.
Kolkata
13.22
3.
Delhi
12.79
4.
Chennai
6.42
5.
Bangalore
5.69
6.
Hyderabad
5.53
7.
Ahmedabad
4.52
8.
Pune
3.76
9.
Surat
2.81
10.
Kanpur
2.69
11.
Jaipur
2.32
12.
Lucknow
2.27
13.
Nagpur
2.12
14.
Patna
1.71
15.
Indore
1.64
16.
Vadodara
1.49
17.
Bhopal
1.45
18.
Coimbatore
1.45
19.
Ludhiana
1.39
20.
Kochi
1.36
21.
Vishakhapatnam
1.33
22.
Agra
1.32
23.
Varanasi
1.21
24.
Madurai
1.19
25.
Meerut
1.17
26.
Nashik
1.15
27.
Jabalpur
1.12
28.
Jamshedpur
1.10
29.
Asansol
1.09
30.
Dhanbad
1.06
31.
Faridabad
1.05
32.
Allahabad
1.05
33.
Amritsar
1.01
34.
Vijayawada
1.01
35.
Rajkot
1.00
Total
107.88
India People and Economy
Based upon Survey of India map with the permission of Surveyor General of India.
The territorial water of India extends into the sea to a distance of twelve nautical miles
measured from the appropriate baseline.
The responsibility for the correctness of internal details rests with the publisher.
Fig. 6.2 Metropolitan Cities of India, 2001
56
Government of India Copyright, 2003
Urban Settlements
Mumbai-Gujarat
region:
Another
concentration of big cities and towns can be
seen in Gujarat, where four metropolitan
cities Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and
Surat function as cores of their urban
systems. A large number of towns have
emerged due to industrial development
particularly based on petroleum. Urbanised
belt of northwestern Maharashtra, centring
on Mumbai continues up to Pune in the
southeast and along the Mumbai-Delhi
railway track.
the country. Total slum population is 40.3
million (1991) comprising of 22.58 per cent of
the urban population reporting slums.
Maharashtra registered a slum population of
10.64 million. The proportion of slum
population to total urban population of the
states ranges from 1.81 per cent in Kerala to
41.33 per cent in Meghalaya, 14.1 per cent
being the national average. In million plus
cities, the largest proportion of slum population
is in Greater Mumbai (48.88%) and the lowest
is in Patna (0.25%). Slums of Greater Mumbai
accommodate about 6 per cent of the total
population of Maharashtra. Most of the urban
problems are related to these slums.
DISTRIBUTION
OF
TOWNS
AND
Kerala Coast: The Kerala coast has nearly a
continuous string of towns extending from
Mahe to Kanyakumari. Kochi has grown as
metropolis. Thiruvananthapuram is another
major urban centre.
CITIES
Tamil Nadu-South Kar nataka belt:
Chennai and Bangalore make another
corridor of urban-industrial development.
Both are mega cities. In the interior,
Coimbatore, Tiruchchirappalli, Madurai,
Pondicherry and Salem are prominent
industrial-urban areas. Southern Karnataka
plateau and Tamil Nadu upland also are
studded with towns of different sizes.
Historically, cities were more numerous in
north Indian plains; they were also located
near the old ports on the western and the
eastern coast. Over the vast stretches of
central and southern Indian plateaus they
were few and far between. These towns and
cities, particularly those located inland, were
often administrative headquarters, trading
centres at nodal locations or places of religious
significance. Muslim dominance in medieval
times did not change this significantly except
that the names were changed and some
Muslim religious edifices were added. But in
the modern times, pattern of distribution of
towns and cities has changed considerably.
Most of the towns and cities are found in the
following areas:
Upper Krishna basin: Continuous belt of
towns and cities extends parallel to the
Western Ghats from Satara in southwestern
Maharashtra to Shimoga in Karnataka.
Presence of minerals and development of
hydroelectricity helped in industrialisation
and urbanisation in this belt.
Punjab-Haryana Upper Ganga Plain: Cities
and towns of all sizes are numerous over the
vast plains of north India particularly in its
western part. A chain of ten million-plus cities
extends from Amritsar in the northwest to
Varanasi in the east. (Fig. 6.2)
Krishna-Godavari Delta: On the east coast,
the Krishna and Godavari delta and the
adjoining low lands is a notable area of cities
and towns extending inland towards
Vijayawada, Warangal, and Hyderabad. It
extends along the coastal plain of northern
Andhra Pradesh up to Vishakhapatnam.
Kolkata-Ranchi belt: Southern West Bengal
and adjoining Jharkhand and northern fringe
of Orissa make the mineral trove of India
(rightly called Rhur Basin of India), all hubbed
at Kolkata and its port services. Besides
Kolkata, Asansol, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur
are other metropolises in this belt.
Norther n Maharashtra:Notable urban
development is also seen along the MumbaiKolkata trunk route, which passes through
cotton-rich Vidarbha, and farther east
through the mineral-rich Chhattisgarh and
the Rhur Basin of India. Among many cities,
Nagpur is the most important one. Raipur,
57
India People and Economy
Bhilai Nagar-Durg and Bilaspur are the other
important cities.
in this class. Kolkata, Saharanpur, Satna, etc.
are some examples.
FUNCTIONAL CLASSIFICATION
Mining towns: Raniganj, Jharia, Digboi,
Ankaleshwar, Singrauli, etc.
OF
TOWNS
AND
CITIES
Cantonment towns: Ambala, Jalandhar,
Mhow, Babina, Meerut Cantt, etc.
Apart from their role as central or nodal
places, many towns and cities per form
specialised services. Some towns and cities
specialise in certain functions and they are
known for certain specific activities, products
or services. This is due to special local
resources available in these towns and cities
or due to their location at specific sites, which
have certain cultural, historical or traditional
values associated with them. For example,
port cities are essentially engaged in external
trade of goods and related activities. Some
towns function only as transport towns
Itarsi, Bina, Katni, etc. in Madhya Pradesh
and Mughal Sarai and Tundla in Uttar
Pradesh function as railway junctions;
whereas Dhulia (Maharashtra) and Agra
(Uttar Pradesh) are Trunk road junctions.
Similarly, some cities have specialised
manufacturing industries and some have
religious importance.
However, each town performs a number
of functions. On the basis of dominant or
specialised functions, Indian cities and towns
can be broadly classified as follows:
Educational towns: Roorkie, Varanasi,
Aligarh, Pilani, etc.
Religious and cultural towns: Varanasi,
Mathura, Amritsar, Madurai, Tirupati, etc.
Tourist towns: Nainital, Mussoorie, Shimla,
Pachmarhi, Udagamandalam (Ooty), Mount
Abu, etc.
Even specialised cities, as they grow into
metropolises become multifunctional wherein
industry, business, administration, transport,
etc. become important.
Functional Zones
Within each medium or large city there are
specific areas specialising in certain functions
or activities like business, industrial,
administrative, institutional, transport,
residential, etc. Business area is often the core
and centre of the city. It is densely populated
and has narrow lanes due to very high land
value. It is called Central Business District
(CBD). It is very crowded during business
hours and is, therefore, called hard core of
the city. Open spaces like parks, playgrounds,
etc. are found in residential areas, industrial
areas or market areas. Industrial areas are
somewhat away from city limits and are
determined by infrastructural facilities.
Wholesale areas, transport areas,
administrative and institutional areas also
have somewhat secluded location. Old
residential areas are found close to the CBD
but newer residential areas form distinct
patches in the city. Thus, functional
segregation and resulting development of
functional zones is a hallmark of cities. Today
many isolated zones grow up as suburbs or
satellite towns at some distance from the main
city, which are functionally linked with it. As
such, extended cities may assume a multinuclear structure. A nuclear city originally
grows its functional zones in more or less
Administrative towns and cities: Towns
supporting administrative headquarters of
higher order are administrative towns, such
as Chandigarh, New Delhi, Bhopal, Shillong,
etc.
Industrial towns: Industries constitute
prime motive force of these cities such as
Mumbai, Salem, Coimbatore, Modinagar,
Jamshedpur, Hugli, Bhilai, etc.
T ransport cities: They may be ports
primarily engaged in export and import
activities such as Kandla, Kochi, Kozhikode,
Vishakhapatnam, etc. or hubs of inland
transport such as Agra, Dhulia, Mughal Sarai,
Itarsi, Katni, etc.
Commercial towns: Towns and cities
specialising in trade and commerce are kept
58
Urban Settlements
circular fashion around the city centre (CBD),
but later development of functional zones
along arterial roads, makes it star-shaped or
sectoral in structure.
3.
Indian Cities: Salient Characteristics
4.
Salient features of the Indian cities are as
follows.
1. Most towns and cities are over-grown
villages and have much rural semblance
behind their street frontages.
2. People are even more rural in their habits
and attitude, which reflects their socio-
5.
6.
economic outlook in housing and other
aspects.
Sizeable chunk of cities are full of slums
largely due to the influx of immigrants
without much infrastructure.
Several cities have distinct marks of earlier
rulers and old functions.
Functional segregation is distinctly
rudimentary, non-comparable to western
cities.
Social segregation of population is based
either on caste, religion, income or
occupation.
EXERCISES
Review Questions
1. Answer briefly the following:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f )
(g)
(h)
What is a town?
What are census towns?
Name two ancient towns.
Name two medieval towns.
What is a city?
How are towns classed on the basis of population?
Which category of towns has the largest percentage of population in India?
How many metro cities (Metropolitan cities) are in India?
2. Write short notes on the following:
(a) Metro cities
(b) Slums
(c) CBD
(d) Functional zones.
3. Give an account of the distribution of towns and cities in India.
4. Classify towns on the basis of functions.
5. Describe salient characteristics of Indian towns and cities.
Project Work
6. Visit a town or city of your area, identify its CBD and prepare a brief write-up on it.
59
