Urbanisation

Urbanisation in India is officially defined by two metrics:

Administrative Definition

• It considers the population living in areas governed by urban local bodies such as municipal corporations, municipal councils or notified town committees.
• These urban settlements governed by urban local bodies are referred to as “statutory towns”.
• Using the administrative definition, India was approximately 26% urban in 2011. State governments determine the administrative status of a settlement.
• By default, all settlements are rural and become urban only after the state government converts them, following a requisite legal process.
• While there are guidelines for classifying a settlement as urban, these are not binding on state governments.

Census Definition

• Under this definition, the population living in statutory towns described above as well as census towns together constitutes the urban population.
• Census towns are a category created by the census that fulfill the following three criteria: population of at least 5,000; density of at least 400 persons per square kilometer, and at least 75% of the male main working population engaged in non-agricultural activities.
• India stood at 31.2% urban in 2011 according to the census definition.

As India rapidly urbanises, these traditional measures are inadequate to capture the complex phenomenon, especially when we study this at the state or local level. To begin with, there is a large difference between urbanization as defined by the two official definitions. For example, Kerala is 15% urban by the administrative definition, but 47.7% by the census definition. The built-up density on ground processed from the satellite map of Kozhikode shows how the urban expansion ignored the administrative boundary between 1975 and 2014. Other definitions reveal even larger gaps.

Status of Urbanisation in India

• Having witnessed a significant rise in urbanisation in 2001–11 decade —percentage of urban population jumped from 27.8% to 31.15% — India is expected to continue with the trend till 2030.
• While an estimated 180 million rural people lived around India’s 70 largest urban centres in 2011, Mckinsey Global Institute estimates that this number may jump to about 210 million by 2030.
• India’s urban system consists of 7,933 cities and towns as of 2011 with a population of 377.16 million.
• It is now the second largest in the world rising from 5,161 towns and cities in 2001 with a total population of 286.1 million.
• Over the last few decades, India’s urbanisation has witnessed important shifts such as rising population share of metropolitan cities and a sharp jump in the numbers and population of census towns whose share in urban population has risen from 7.6% in 2001 to 14.5% in 2011.

Future Challenges

• This is set to rise exponentially and as per the United Nations (2014) estimates, the population increase in India between 2015 and 2030 would increase in urban areas and the addition may be around 164 million people.
• Aligning urban land markets to the forces of India’s urbanisation remains a challenge. The urban land in India currently accounts for 3.1% of the country’s land area and presents a complex situation where high urban densities co-exist with sub-optimal utilisation.
• Whilethe overall supply of urban lands has risen over the ten year period between 2001–11, the supply still lags behind the demand.

India’s Current Approach to Urbanisation

India’s current approach to urbanization is focussed on several objectives:

• Urbanization must generate growth and enhance economic productivity and competitiveness
• It should be inclusive and sustainable
• It should aim at preservation and revitalization of history, culture and heritage
• It should contribute to the development of rural areas and strengthen rural urban interdependencies