• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

CENSUS OF INDIA 1971 JAMMU AND KASHMIR SERIES 8 PART - VIB Special Survey Reports on Selected Towns ANANTNAG FIELD INVESTIGATION, H. L KALLA, M. Sc. (Statistics) FIRST AND FINAL DRAFT Assistant Director and J. K. NANDA, B. A. Investigator SUPERVISION AND GUIDANCE ABDUL GANI, M. A. (Econ. Statistics) Deputy Director EDITOR ABDUL GANI Deputy Director Census operations ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Survey S. M. YAQUB. Socio Economic Investigator HAFIZ-UL-REHMAN, Computor ZAMIR AHMED KAWOOSA. Assistant Compiler Tabulation S. M. YAQUB, Socio Economic Investigator HAFIZ-UL-REHMAN. Computor ZAMIR AHMED KAWOOSA, Assistant Compiler MOHD. SULTAN WANI. Assistant Compiler Cover Design MASOOD AHMED. Cartographer Charf5 MASOOD AHMED. Cartographer ABDUL QAYUM. Draftsman Typing BAL KRISHEN. Lower Division Clerk BUSHAN LAL BHAT. Assistant Compiler . FOREWORD The Census has become an indispensable instru­ ment of policy and development planning. It need hardly be stressed that a census is not a mere counting of heads. It is a kind of stock -taking as it were, of the nation's human wealth. Census aims at presenting as complete a picture of man as may be possible in his social, cultural and economic setting. Recognising that its role is to serve the needs of the planner, policy maker, administrator and the academician, the Census Organisation from time to time. arranges discussions with the main data users and seeks guidance in planning its operations. However, for a further and more realistic appreciation of the data thrown up by the Census on various aspects of the life of the community, it has been realised that more and more erppirical studies would have to be undertaken. This requirement was kept in' view even while planning the 1961 Census. The studies undertaken as ancillary to it, and particularly the socio-economic survey of five hundred and odd villages throughout the country pro­ vided. insight into the meaning of the statistical data in terms of real life situations. India is no doubt predominantly rural, but urbanisation has been rapidly occuring. With increas­ ing tempo of economic and industrial development of the country urbanisation would seem inevitable. Urbanisation has become sine qua non of progress. Urban centres are undoubtedly the centres of dis­ semination of knowledge, new ideas, technical skills and so on. This influences the life around till more and more areas get urbanised India is at this interesting transitional stage and the Census Organisa­ tion thought it fit to undertake studies to get a deeper ii insight into the growth of small towns which are likely to play an important role in the life and economy of the community in the near future. Under the -1971 Census a separate Town Directory giving certain basic data pertaining to each town in the country was brought out. This is being supplemented by fairly detailed accounts of a few towns selected for study all over the country which may help to bring out the intensity and effect of the socio-economic forces generated by urbanisation as also what impact urbanisation has made on the rural neighbourhood. In consultation with the town planners, anthro­ pologists, sociologists, geographers, economists, demo­ graphers, etc., the criteria laid down for selection of towns for speoial studies were size; demographic features, such as growth rate, density of population and age of town; functional type; locational factors such as topography and natural environment, climate, growth pattern of the region, growth history and distance from nearest metropolitan area; nature of relation with other towns; concentration of ethnic or religious group, caste or community and other social and cultural phenomena. Towns with maximum clustering of the difiertmt criteria were preferred at the time of the selection, on an all India basis, at the same time ensuring that the various characteristics are represented in one town or tile other as finally selected for t~e study. This history covers, among other things, the (a) growth history of towns including th~ infrastructure of growth and basic and non-basic economy and con­ comitant changes in the economic and social relations of the region, (b) growth history of the various servicing institutions in the towns in response to the different factors of change and the concomitant changes in the pattern of distribution of community power and prestige, (c) frequency and pattern of. inter-action iii among the different segments of the popUlation, (d) nature and intensity of linkages with other towns of the region on the one hand and the rural hinterland on the other, (e) persistence of the values of traditional society and percolation of technological values of modern civilization in the social complex of the towns, and (0 other ancillary matters. A set of schedules was evolved in connection with the present survey by the Social Studies Division of the Office of the Registrar General, India under the guidance of Dr. B. K. Roy Burman, Deputy Registrar General, India (Social Studies). The survey of indi­ vidual towns has been carried out mainly by the Directors of Census Operations in the various States and Union Territories, with the technical device of the Social Studies Division. Qualified research per­ sonnel have been placed at the disposal of the Directors of Census Operations I Social Studies Division of the office of the Registrar General, India for carrying out the field investigations and coordinating the studies of individual towns, etc. It is an encouraging feature that certain individual scholars and academic institutions have c,?me forward to take up the studies of some towns within'the framework of the present scheme. I feel confident, thanks to the enthusiasm shown by my colleagues in the State Census Offices and the academic world, a corpus of knowledge will be built up which may be useful not only for academic purposes but also for various development activities. The credit for organising these studies rightly belongs to my colleagues in the Social Studies Division. I am grateful to Dr. B. K. Roy Burman, who was in charge of the Social Studies Division, for stimulating his colleagues in the Census offices to study in depth the specific problems of social change and for develop­ ing the necessary tools for the study by devising exhaustive schedules for collecting the requisite data. iv I am thankful to Shri N. G. Nag, Assistant Registrar General, who later took over the coordination of the programme from Dr. Roy Burman. I also 2cknow­ ledge the important role of Shri C. G. Jadhav, Officer on Special Duty, who undertook the scrutiny of the statistical data and drafts prepared in the Census offices in the States with the assistance of S111t. Sabharwal and Sarvashri R. K. Mehta and N. P. Jagota. The present monograph is the outcome of the study undertaken by the Directorate of Census Opera­ tions, Jammu and Kashmir State. The study was conducted by S/Shri H. L. Kalla, Assistant Director, and J. K. N anda, Investigator under the supervision of Shri Abdul Gani, Deputy Director, Census Operations. Shri Gani also edited the report. I am indebted to my· colleagues in the Census office for their painstaking efforts in the preparation of the monograph. NEW DELID P. PADMANABHA October 4, 1978. Registrar General, India PREFACE Urbanisation is considered a sign of progress, mor6' so in a developing country like India where this process aims at modernisation of traditional society. The implementation of Five Year Plans has accele­ rated the tempo of socio-economic development through industrialisation which in turn has paved the way for large scale urbanisation in the country. While in developed countries the urban growth has reached almost the point of saturation, the developing countries are experiencing an unending wave of migration from rural to urban areas. It is predicted that by 2000 A.D. when the world population is likely to touch the figure of 6,515 million, the urban population would have grown nearly nine-fold and rural popUlation would have only doubled. In developed countries over 60 per cent would be inhabiting the urban areas while in the less developed countries this proportion would be around 40 per cent. Ingia, though still predominantly rural in charac­ ter, has witnessed a pretty faster urban growth during the last thirty years. The urban population has gone up from lO.84 per cent in 1901 to 19.91 per cent in 1971. During the, decade 1961-71 the rate of incr-ease has been much higher, as a result of which the urban proportion has gone up from 17.98 per cent to 19.91 per cent. In J and K State, however, the urban growth has been relatively slower. The urban population constituted 7.40 per cent of the total popu­ lation of the State in 1901, 16.70 per cent in 1961 and 18.59 per cent in 1971. On the basis of this proportion, the State ranks ninth in the galaxy of other States of the country. Although urban areas are the centres of dessemi· nation of knowledge, new ideas, technical skills etc. at v vi the same time the continuous flow of rural dwellers to urban areas has created complex problems of housing, proliferation of slums and blighted areas, problems in civic amenities, education, transport and communica­ tions, crimes, immoral traffic and ecology. The data thrown up by the census however does not give any clue to these problems. It is for this reason, that about 200 towns, small and medium, were selected through­ out the country for micro-type studies to understand the intensity and direction of socio-economic forces generated as a result of urbanisation and the impact thereof on rural hinterland. The study would also help to lay bare how much rural the urban areas are and how much urban the rural areas are; in develop­ ing countries it has rather become unrealistic to present census statistics in terms of rural-urban dichotomy.

Load more

  850

Copy Link