+rR<t qil \J1~4IUI~1 1981 CENSUS OF I~DIA 1981 ~- 24 SERIES - 24 'tfrt CSiACI( 1R Rtilq ~ R41! SPECIAL SURVEY REPORT ON PORT BLAIR atri'4f111 am- f.titl)ill( ~ wm ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS The cover photograph is of notorious and dreaded Cellular Jail-popularly known as the Jail of Kalapani. The construction of the Jail was completed in 1906 which had 698 cells. It is mute sagaman of history of great freedom fighters. The Jail has been declared as National Monument on 11 th Febru~ry, 1979 by Hon'ble Shri Morarji Desai, the then Prime Minister of India. CONTENTS PAGES FOREWORD IX PREFACE XI CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1-8 Location and Site Selection, Topography and Physical Environ­ ment, Flora and Fauna, Climate, Rainfall and Humidity, Transport and Communication, Morphology, Ethnic groups CHAPTER" HISTORY OF GROWTH 9-14 Brief History of the Andamans prior to settlement, First Settlement (1789-1796), second penal settlement; shifting of Headquarters of settlement, Japanese occupation, Groth of Port Blair after Independence, Formation of Port Blair town, Effect of Migration, Impact of Topography on the growth of Population, Wards and residential pattern CHAPTER'" AMENITIES AND SERVICES 15-26 History of~rowth and pres8ilt poSition, Administration, District Office, Police Office, Judiciafjf, A.P.W. D., Forest Department, Electricity, Education, Health, All India ~adio and Doordarshan, Shipping arw .Marine, Port Blair Municipal Board v CHAPTER IV ECONOMIC LIFE OF THE TOWN 27-34 Collection of data, Economic Life, Andaman Chamber of Com­ merce and Industry, Market, Households by type of household and occupation of Head of Household, Distribution of household by Employment depth, Unemployment, Occupational diversity, Distribution of population by workers, Non-workers and by age group and sex, Castes and Creeds, Agriculture and Horticulture CHAPTERV ETHNIC AND SELECTED SOCIQ DEMOGRApHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POPULATION 35-40 Ethnic composition of the population, Mother tongue, Scheduled castes and Scheduled tribes, Houseless and Institutional popu­ lation, Distribution of population by Age, Sex, Marital Status, Educatio~ and Religion in sample households CHEPTER VI MIGRATION AND SETILEMENT 41-45 General, Population classified by place of birth, Migrants classi­ fied by place of birth, Migrants by place of last residence, Migrants by reasons for Migration, Place of birth of head of household, Distribution of Migrants by workers and Non-work­ ers, Property of Migrants CHAPTER VII NEIGHBOURHOOD PATIERN 47·51 General, Festivals, Boundaries of localities, Characteristics of location CHAPTER VIII FAMILY LIFE IN THE TOWN 53·57 Type of family, Distribution of households by mig~ant and non­ migrant, by number of membrs and age and education, House­ holds whose family members are staying outside by religion and place of migration, Remittar.ces VI CHAPTER IX HOUSING AND MATERIAL CULTURE 59-62 General, Houses·, Electricity and Toilets, Drinking water, Problems faced by Households, Housing material, Houses, Households and Furniture, Light Fuel and Migration Status, Luxury items CHEPTER X SLUMS, BLIGHTED AND OTHER AREAS WITH SUB-STANDARD LIVING CONDITIONS 63 CHAPTER XI ORGANISATION OF POWER AND PRESTIGE 65-68 Voting preference-Lok Sabha Election, 1984, Members of Pradesh Council, Members of Port Blair Municipal Board, Trade Unions, Respectable and Influencial persons CHAPTER XII LEISURE, RECREATION, SOCIAL PARTICIPATION, SOCIAL AWARENESS, RELIGION AND CRIMES 69-76 Cultural and Recreational Centres, Temples, Mosques, Churches, Gurudwaras, etc. Parks, Zoological Garden and Playgrounds, Town Hall and Clubs, Cinema Houses, Television and Radio, Places of Tourist interests, Newspapers, Crimes, Family WeHare and Social Welfare programmes CHAPTER XIII LINKAGE AND CONTINUA 77-80 Brief history and georgraphy, Second Penal Settlement, Linkage and passenger traffic, Visit to rural areas, Effect of Urbanisation on nearby villages CHAPTER XIV CONCLSION 81-82 Appendices 1-48 Survey Tables 84-157 49 List of Tr~~ Unios._ 158-159 -56 "tfunicipal Board Constitution, Bye-laws and rules etc. 160-169 57 Scientific names of important animals of Port Blair, Andamans 170 58 Botanical names of plants 171 59 Bibliography 172-178 VII FOREWORD Apart from the decennial enumeration of population, the Indian Census is steeped in the tradition of undertaking a variety of studies of topical interest. In fact, the publications brought out in connection with the earlier censuses contained veritable mines of information on racial, cultural, linguistic and a number of other aspects of life of the people of this country. With the advent of freedom, however, the scope and dimension of these special studies had to be restructured in a manner that would provide the basic feedbacks on the processes of development taking place in different spheres of life of the people especially under planned development. Thus, in connection with the 1961 Census, a massive programme was launched inter-alia to conduct social-economic survey of about 500 villages selected from different parts of the country. The main objective of this study was to know the way of life of the people living in Indian villages which accounted for 82 per cent of the total population as per the 1961 Census. There W:lS, however, an imperative need to extend the area of the study to urban centres as well, to provide a complete coverage of the people living in socio-economic conditions. It was with this objective in view ancillary studies on towns were lanunched as part of the social studies programme in connection with the 1971 Census. The programme of social studies taken up in connection with the 1971 Census, was continued without any major change at the 1981 Census as well. A study on traditional rural based handicrafts was, however, added as a new item under the sQcial study projects of the 1981 Census. For the conduct of urban study, 64 small and medium towns were selected from different parts of the country following the criteria such as (a) size, (b) demographic features, (c) functional characteristics, (d) specific industry or occupation dominating the economy, (e) location, (f) concentration of different ,castes and communities, and (g) other SOCial and cultural phenomenon like temple town, health resort etc. The research deSign, tools for data collection and formats for data tabulation and report writing required for urban studies were originally formulated by Dr. B.K. Roy Burman, the then Deputy Registrar General, Social Studies Division. His successor, Dr. N.G. Nag took considerable pains to revise all the formats to make them more comprehensive. Dr. K.P. Ittaman, the present Deputy Registrar General heading Social Studies Division, coordinated these studies at different levels as well as rendered necessary guidance to the Directorates of Census Operations for their successful consummation. Shri M.K. Jain, Senior Research Officer with the able assistance of Investigators, Shri S. Sanyal and Shri S. C. Madan did a commendable job in scrutinising the report and commu­ nicating the comments thereon to the Directorates. I am grateful to all the them. The present report is the out-come of a study on Port Blair town undertaken by the Directorate of Census Operations, Andaman & NiCobar Islands. I am indebted to Shri Balwant Singh, Deputy Director of Census Operations and his colleagues in the Census Directorate for their pains taking efforts in bringing out this report. New Deihl, the 28, March, 1989 V.S. VERMA REGISTRAR GENERAL,INDIA" IX PREFACE The modern cenus is not merely an operation of counting of human heads. It is much more than that. Truely speaking. it is a mine of information containing varieties of data required by the Administrators. Planners. Economists. Demographers, Social Workers, Business Men and Entrepre­ neures, Educationists etc. That is why the importance of census is being increasingly recognised by one and all. In 1971 Census a programme of conducting in depth studies in the form of town studies projects was taken up which continued in 1981 Census also. Under this special survey project. Port Blair, the only town in Andaman and Nicobar Islands was selected as one of the 64 towns selected all over the country for in-depth study. However. due to several constraints. the study could not be taken up earlier. Hence it was carried out as a part of the Intercensal project of 1981Census. The schedules of the study were devised in two parts viz. Household schedules and Town schedules. The Household schedules were canvassed by the Investigators in 200 selected house­ holds whereas the information in Town schedules were collected from different offices and organi­ sations. The field work of canvassing schedules was commenced by Shri S.P. Sharma. Deputy Director in 1984 and followed up by Shri R.K. Bhatia. Deputy Director who relieved Shri S.P. Sharma in 1984. I joined this office in 1987 and persued this work further. In this task I was ably assisted by two officials namely Shri Manzoor Ali. Senior Supervisor and Prem Kumar Pathak. Statistical Assistant who were kindly transferred for a period of six months by Registrar General. India from the Census Directorate of Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow to take up the remaining field work and tabulation work. In spite of our best efforts many a departments/organisations could not furnish the information as required in Town schedules. Therefore. as far as possible, this gap was abridged by using data published in other publications. The task of study of Port Blair Town was tough and huge. The credit of completing this report is duly shared by all gentlemen involved from beginning to end. The dictation and typing work was attended to by Shri K.V. K. Nair, Junior Stenographer, S/Shri R. Sasi, Upper Division Clerk,V.O. Koshy, Computor and Churchil, Lower Division Clerk also assisted in the typing work. The collection of photographs was done by Shri M.L. Puri, Office Superintendent. I avail this opportunity to thank my office colleagues involved directly or indirectly and Heads of Offices of A ndaman & Nicobar Admini­ stration who furnished the information as per town schedules.